A  NEGLECTED  ERA 


PALESTINE  DURING  THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  PERIOD 


A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

From  the  Old  Testament  to  the  New 


BY 
EDITH  ROSS  BRALEY 


NEW  YORK 
E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

68r  FIFTH  AVENUE 


Cbpyright,  1922, 
BY  B.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved 


nr  TOT  TTNTTED  STATIS  OF  AMIEICA 


TO  MY  FORMER  PASTOR 
PAUL  DWIGHT  MOODY 

THIS  BOOK 
IS  GRATEFULLY  DEDICATED 


528-1 


PREFACE 

Several  years  ago,  when  I  attempted  to  lead 
a  group  of  women  in  the  study  of  the  period  be- 
tween the  Testaments,  we  found  ourselves  handi- 
capped by  the  want  of  an  adequate  textbook. 
The  interest  of  the  class  was  enthusiastic  and  the 
study  seemed  so  well  worth  time  and  effort  that 
at  the  request  of  the  members  of  the  class  and 
other  friends,  I  have  ventured  to  assemble  in  one 
volume  the  information  which  made  the  period 
interesting  and  illuminating  to  us,  and  have 
dared  to  hope  that  it  might  be  of  use  to  other 
teachers  and  other  classes. 

History,  legend,  and  comment  gleaned  from 
the  pages  of  the  following  works  proved  invalu- 
able assistance  and  I  am  much  indebted  to  their 
authors :  I  wish  also  to  acknowledge  my  indebt- 
edness to  Rev.  Paul  D.  Moody  without  whose 
encouragement  and  friendly  criticism  the  book 
would  never  have  been  completed. 

History  of  the  People  of  Israel, 

Carl  Heinrich  Cornill,  PH.D.,,D.  D. 


PREFACE 

History  of  Israel, 

George  Heinrich  von  Ewald. 

History  of  the  Jewish  Church, 
Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley,  D.  D. 
Dean  of  Westminster 

The  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Christ. 
Emil  Schurer. 

Historical  Connection  Between  the  Old  and 

New  Testaments, 
Principal  J.  Skinner,  M.  A.,  D.  D. 

Life  and  Times  of  the  Messiah, 
Alfred  Edersheim,  Pn.D.,  D.  D. 

Hours  with  the  Bible, 

John  Cunningham  Geikie,  D.  D.,  L.L.D. 

Life  of  Christ, 

Cannon  F.  W.  Farrar,  D.  D.,  F.  R.  S. 

The  Modern  Reader's  Bible, 

Richard  G.  Moulton,  M.  A.,  PH.D. 

A  Brief  History  of  Our  English  Bible, 
Rev.  Paul  D.  Moody. 

The  Prophets  as  Statesmen  and  Preachers, 
Henry  T.  Fowler,  PH.D. 

Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 
James  Hastings,  D.  D. 

'A  Commentary  on  The  Holy  Bible, 
Rev.  J.  R.  Dummelow,  M.  A. 


CONTENTS 

PACT 

HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION i 

PART  I.    THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD 

538-333  B.  C. 

OHAPTXB 

I.    EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH 9 

The  reforms  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  The  foundation 
of  legalism  and  exclusiveness. 

PART  II.    THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

333-I6O  B.  C. 

II.    THE  ORIGIN  OF  HELLENISM     ....     25 
Alexander  the  Great's  Conquest  of  Syria.    First  traces 
of  Hellenism.    Life  and  philosophy  of  Socrates. 

III.  THE  RULE  OF  THE  PTOLEMIES  ....     37 

Jews  in  Alexandria.  The  synagogue  and  the  yearly 
tribute.  Power  and  character  of  the  high  priest.  Lit- 
erary activity  of  the  period. 

IV.  THE  PERSECUTION .     50 

Palestine  tributary  to  the  Seleucids.  Antiochus  Epi- 
phanes.  The  persecution  and  the  revolt  under  Marta- 
thias  Maccabeus. 

V.    JUDAS  MACCABEUS 66 

His  remarkable  victories.  His  rededication  of  the  tem- 
ple. His  defeat  and  death.  His  treaty  with  Rome. 

PART  III.    THE  ROMAN  PERIOD. 

1 60  B.  C.-70  A.  D. 

VI.    JUDEA  AN  INDEPENDENT  KINGDOM  UNDER 

THE  ASMONEAN  MONARCHS   ....       89 
Jonathan  and   Simon  Maccabeus.    Treaty  with  Rome 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

renewed.  John  Hyrcanus.  The  Sadducees  and  the 
Pharisees.  The  Jews  and  the  Samaritans.  The  de- 
cadence of  the  Asmonean  monarch. 

VII.    THE  RIVAL  CLAIMANTS  FOR  THE  JEWISH 

THRONE 108 

Civil  war  between  Hyrcanus  and  Aristobulus.  The 
intervention  of  Pompey.  Loss  of  Jewish  independence. 

VIII.    HEROD  THE  GREAT 123 

His  early  life.  His  appointment  as  King  of  the  Jews 
by  the  Roman  Senate.  His  marriage.  Execution  of 
his  wife  and  children.  Policy  of  his  reign.  His  pub- 
lic works.  The  temple  of  Herod. 

PART  IV.    DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

IX.    THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  CANON  AND  THE 

TALMUD 153 

X.    SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE 165 

XL    THE  ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM   .     .     .180 
XII.    THE  SCRIBES,  THE  PHARISEES,  THE  SAD- 
DUCEES AND  THE  ESSENES      .       .       .       .196 

XIII.  HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  .     .     .     .     .213 

Hellenism  in  Palestine.  Judaism  in  Alexandria.  Aris- 
tobulus and  Philo. 

XIV.  THE  JEWS  AND  THE  ROMANS  ....  230 

The  sons  of  Herod  the  Great.  Judea  under  Roman 
procurators.  The  war  with  Rome.  The  siege  and 
destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

APPENDIX •    :.  257 

MAPS 

PALESTINE    DURING    THE    GREEK    AND    ROMAN 

PERIODS Frontispiece 

JERUSALEM  IN  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD    .  Facing  Page  89 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

When  narrating  his  spiritual  adventures  in 
Grace  Abounding,  John  Bunyan  describes  the 
mingled  sensations  of  anxiety  and  peace  brought 
to  his  orthodox  soul  by  the  perusal  of  lines  for 
which  he  vainly  sought  between  the  covers  of  his 
Bible.  "Look  at  the  generations  of  old  and  see; 
did  any  ever  trust  in  the  Lord,  and  was  con- 
founded?" "Then  I  continued,"  he  says,  "above 
a  year  and  could  not  find  the  place;  but  at  last, 
casting  my  eyes  upon  the  Apocrypha  books,  I 
found  it  in  the  tenth  verse  of  the  second  chapter 
of  Ecclesiasticus.  This  at  first  did  somewhat 
daunt  me  because  it  was  not  in  those  texts  which 
we  call  holy  or  canonical.  Yet  as  this  sentence 
was  the  sum  and  substance  of  many  of  the 
promises,  it  was  my  duty  to  take  comfort  of  it, 
and  I  bless  God  for  that  word,  for  it  was  of  good 
to  me.  That  word  doth  still  oft-times  shine 
before  my  face." 

The  Bible  student  approaches  the  study  of 
the  four  centuries  of  Jewish  history  immediately 
preceding  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  with  al- 
ternate feelings  of  doubt  and  confidence  not  un- 

i 


2  A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

like  those  which  John  Bunyan  experienced  when 
he  found  his  favorite  text  upon  the  pages  of  the 
Apocrypha.  He  is  assailed  by  doubt  because 
the  Hebrew  literature  of  the  period  was  rejected 
by  the  makers  of  the  Old  Testament  Canon 
as  inferior  from  both  a  literary  and  spiritual 
point  of  view,  and,  with  the  exception  of  Daniel, 
Ecclesiastes,  and  a  few  psalms,  assigned  by  mod- 
ern scholars  to  the  Maccabean  age,  it  has  found 
no  place  in  the  Bible.  This  acknowledged  infer- 
iority of  Apocryphal  literature,  an  expression 
of  the  moral  decadence  of  the  age  in  which  it 
was  written,  is  not  reassuring  to  the  seeker  for 
mental  and  spiritual  food,  and  he  cannot  fail  to 
question  whether  with  a  wide  field  of  Bible  lit- 
erature open  for  exploration,  his  limited  time 
should  be  spent  in  the  study  of  a  period  when 
the  voice  of  prophecy  was  silent  and  the  Jewish 
people  looked  for  God,  not  in  the  whispered 
warnings  of  the  inner  voice  or  the  better  im- 
pulses of  the  heart,  but  in  the  petty  restrictions 
of  an  over-elaborated  law  and  the  wild  and  su- 
perstitious inventions  of  their  Rabbis.  Yet  he 
may  find  restored  confidence  in  the  opinion  of 
many  wise  men  who  believe  that  the  criticism 
awakened  by  these  "hidden"  books  might  be 
applied  with  equal  justice  to  certain  portions  of 
the  accepted  books  of  the  Canon.  Added  re- 
assurance comes  with  an  examination  of  the  neg- 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION  3 

lected  literature,  for  even  a  desultory  reading 
reveals  the  threads  of  gold  which  cross  its  soiled 
and  blood-stained  fabric;  detached  passages  here 
and  there  of  as  fine  a  spiritual  quality  as  that 
which  shone  upon  John  Bunyan's  pathway,  and 
stories  of  the  wonderful  faith  and  devotion  of 
Jewish  martyrs  who  lived  and  died  for  their  re- 
ligion. 

But  the  chief  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the 
study  of  the  Jewish  history  occurring  between 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  periods  is  the  light 
which  it  sheds  upon  the  conditions  among  which 
Christ  lived  and  worked,  and  the  Apocryphal 
books  are  valuable  principally  for  the  historical 
information  which  they  contain  concerning  this 
period.  During  these  intervening  centuries, 
great  changes  took  place  in  world-history.  It 
witnessed  events  of  no  less  importance  than  the 
fall  of  the  Persian  empire,  the  spread  of  Greek 
civilization  in  the  Orient,  and  the  subjugation 
of  the  great  body  of  the  nations  by  the  Romans. 
Judaism  could  not  emerge  from  four  centuries 
of  strife,  persecution  and  contact  with  Greek 
and  Roman  civilization  unchanged,  and  the  Jews 
of  the  New  Testament  are  in  many  respects  a 
very  different  people  from  the  Jews  of  the  Old. 
Greek  culture,  with  its  double  current  of  good 
and  evil,  entered  the  Orient  with  Alexander  the 
Great,  and  in  spite  of  the  persecution  and  dread- 


4  A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

ful  conflict  occasioned  by  the  intruder,  Jewish 
civilization  was  permanently  broadened  and 
deepened  by  its  pervasive  influence.  Roman 
despotism  compressed  to  fanaticism  the  extrava- 
gant zeal  of  an  already  -bigoted  people,  and  even 
the  heavy  hand  of  the  mistress  of  the  world 
could  not  prevent  the  disastrous  outburst  of 
their  seething  discontent.  Greek  philosophy  and 
Roman  law  left  their  impress  upon  Jewish  life 
and  Jewish  religion,  but  the  most  marked  distinc- 
tion between  the  peoples  of  the  two  periods  was 
produced  by  no  outside  force,  but  was1  inherent  in 
the  Jewish  religion  itself.  This  change  was  pro- 
duced by  the  growth  of  legalism  and  formalism. 
In  the  -fifth  century  before  Christ,  the  problem 
by  which  the  leading  men  of  the  Jewish  nation 
were  confronted  was :  will  Judaism  have  sufficient 
stamina  to  weather  the  disintegrating  forces 
with  which  it  must  come  in  contact?  With 
the  future  safety  of  their  religion  in  mind,  the 
Hebrew  reformers  of  the  period  erected  for  its 
protection  a  cast-iron  framework  of  law  and 
form.  So  imposing  and  pretentious  was  the 
defence  that  it  overshadowed  and  concealed  the 
tender  plant  for  whose  protection  it  had  been 
erected,  and  the  nurture  of  that  pure  and  spirit- 
ual religion  preached  by  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
was  neglected  and  forgotten,  while  the  protect- 
ing framework  became  the  object  of  most  zeal- 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION  5 

ous  care.  Storms  of  opposition  and  persecution 
served  only  to  prove  its  temper  and  strengthen 
its  persistency.  Each  succeeding  generation  con- 
tributed reinforcements  and  grotesque  additions 
of  complicated  detail  until  the  structure  attained 
a  size  so  monstrous  and  a  shape  of  such  bewil- 
dering intricacy  that  it  would  never  have  been 
recognized  by  its  originators  as  the  outcome  of 
their  comparatively  modest  foundation.  With 
the  tendency  to  make  the  shell  of  prime  import- 
ance rather  than  the  kernel  which  it  contained, 
came  the  inevitable  result,  the  substitution  of  the 
letter  for  the  spirit  of  the  law,  of  ritual  for  right- 
eousness. But,  although  externalism  flourished 
and  the  religion  of  the  changed  heart  became 
a  dry  and  withered  thing,  the  labors  of  those 
who  built  the  artificial  bulwark  were  not  entirely 
vain,  for  beneath  its  shade  in  the  time  of  Christ, 
there  still  survived  the  root  from  which  Chris- 
tianity was  to  spring.  By  this  root,  Christianity 
and  Judaism  were  so  closely  affiliated  that 
but  for  its  existence,  the  whole  course  of  divine 
revelation  must  have  run  in  a  different  channel. 
Subjected  to  the  blessed  influence  of  Christ's 
life  and  work,  it  became  the  most  vital  force  for 
good  which  the  world  has  ever  known,  and  we 
owe  its  survival  to  that  observance  of  law  and 
form  which  bound  the  Jews  so  closely  to  their 
past  and  to  each  other. 


PART  I 
THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD.  538—333  B.  c. 


CHAPTER  I 

EZRA  AND   NEHEMIAH 

Ezra  and  Nehemiah  were  the  reformers  who 
laid  the  corner-stone  of  legalism.  Scripture  tells 
us  that  Ezra  was  a  priest  of  the  house  of  Aaron 
and  "a  ready  scribe  in  the  law  of  Moses,"  that  he 
had  "prepared  his  heart  to  seek  the  law  of  the 
Lord  and  to  do  it  and  to  teach  in  Israel  statutes 
and  judgments,"  a  description  which  combined 
with  subsequent  events,  produces  for  us  a  mental 
picture  of  his  early  manhood,  and  we  imagine 
him  always  poring  over  the  sacred  scrolls  in  the 
law  school  at  Babylon,  a  stern  and  uncompromis- 
ing figure,  the  sharp  angles  of  his  asceticism  still 
untouched  by  the  friction  of  a  pleasure-loving 
world. 

The  narrative  is  silent  concerning  Nehemiah's 
parentage,  and  it  is  evident  that  his  beauty  and 
winning  personality  rather  than  his  lineage  had 
made  him  an  inmate  of  the  Persian  court, 
where  as  the  favorite  of  Artaxerxes  and  his 
queen,  he  had  obtained  the  lucrative  position  of 
royal  cup-bearer.  Seldom  have  such  unselfish 

9 


10  THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD 

consecration,  fiery  enthusiasm,  tireless  energy, 
and  patriotic  persistency  as  Nehemiah's  been  em- 
bodied in  one  man,  and  to  the  gifts  bestowed 
on  him  by  nature  were  added  the  worldly  wis- 
dom, the  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs  acquired 
in  the  Persian  court. 

Probably  two  men  more  distinctly  different  in 
character  and  ability  could  not  have  been  found 
among  the  prominent  Jews  of  the  Babylonian 
colony,  yet  because  deep  in  the  heart  of  both 
rested  the  same  love  and  hate,  hope  and  fear, 
they  were  destined  to  tread  the  same  path  and 
together  to  lift  a  heavy  load  of  indifference 
and  doubt  from  the  hearts  of  their  coun- 
trymen at  Jerusalem,  a  burden  which  the 
very  diversity  of  their  attainments  fitted  them  to 
share. 

Like  all  other  Jewish  patriots,  they  looked  for 
that  golden  age  long  promised  by  their  prophets, 
when  the  heathen  nations  by  whom  they  had  been 
persecuted  and  oppressed  should  bow  in  fear  be- 
fore them;  but  they  had  witnessed  the  dissolution 
of  many  small  nations  upon  return  from  cap- 
tivity, and  they  feared  lest  before  the  coming  of 
that  joyous  day,  the  Jewish  remnant,  enfeebled 
by  exile,  might  be  utterly  lost,  merged  in  the  ocean 
of  heathendom  by  which  it  was  tossed  to  and  fro. 
The  germ  of  Jewish  individuality  must  be 
planted  upon  its  native  soil,  nurtured,  and  above 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  11 

all,  isolated  and  barricaded  from  entangling  and 
destructive  foreign  influences.  No  sacrifices 
were  too  great  or  hardships  too  severe  to  be  en- 
dured for  the  preservation  of  Jewish  in- 
dividuality and  Jewish  religion,  but  the  world- 
wide love  of  humanity  preached  by  the  great 
prophet  of  the  exile  was  unknown  to  these  Jewish 
reformers.  With  every  faculty  alert  for  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  their  countrymen,  they  were 
wholly  deaf  and  blind  to  their  heathen  neighbors' 
need  of  Jehovah  and  hated  them  as  fervently  as 
they  loved  their  God  and  their  religion. 

Before  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  began  their  work, 
the  discipline  of  the  captivity  had  left  its  impress 
upon  the  Jewish  people.  Like  children  sur- 
feited with  sweets,  they  no  longer  cared  for 
idolatry  when  they  were  constantly  surrounded 
by  it,  and  after  seventy  years  of  captivity,  be- 
came for  all  time  a  monotheistic  people.  Daily 
contact  with  the  strength  of  their  conquerers  had 
convinced  them  of  their  own  weakness,  and  the 
futility  of  political  ambition  for  themselves. 
They  renounced  all  thought  of  political  indepen- 
dence and  were  content  to  exist  as  a  religious  sect, 
their  one  hope  faithfulness  to  the  God  who  in  re- 
turn was  to  reward  them  with  a  great  future. 

In  B.  c.  537,  when  Cyrus,  wishing  to  protect 
his  kingdoms  against  the  hostility  of  Egypt  by  es- 
tablishing a  friendly  colony  upon  her  northern 


12  THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD 

border,  had  given  the  captive  Jews  permission  to 
return  to  their  native  land,  many  of  them  had  re- 
covered from  their  first  homesickness  and  pre- 
ferred the  ease  and  prosperity  of  Babylon  to  the 
perils  of  the  long  journey  to  Jerusalem  and  the 
hardships  of  recolonizing  a  deserted  land.  In 
Babylon,  they  formed  a  community  by  them- 
selves, and  wealth  and  comfort  had  led  to  the 
building  up  of  a  Jewish  culture  and  learning  which 
could  not  possibly  have  been  developed  in  the 
struggling  colony  at  Jerusalem.  There,  too, 
a  school  for  the  study  of  the  Mosaic  law  had 
sprung  into  existence,  the  dynamo  where  a  the- 
oretical Judaism  was  generated,  the  revivifying 
influence  of  which  the  Babylonian  Jews  longed 
to  share  with  the  colony  at  Jerusalem. 

The  exiles  who  had  braved  the  difficulties  of 
the  return  found  a  desolate  and  ruined  city  over- 
run by  hostile  heathen  tribes.  The  great  stones 
and  charred  timbers  which  blocked  the  streets  of 
Jerusalem  must  be  removed,  homes  must  be 
built,  a  scanty  subsistence  must  be  wrested  from 
the  unproductive  soil,  and  at  the  same  time,  the 
frequent  attacks  of  hostile  neighbors  must  be  met 
and  parried.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  colonists 
was  so  impaired  by  poverty  and  the  hard  work 
to  which  they  were  unaccustomed,  that  seven- 
teen years  had  passed  before  they  attempted  to 
rebuild  their  place  of  worship.  Then  under  the 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  13 

leadership  of  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  a  plain 
temple  with  scanty  furniture  was  erected  to  re- 
place the  costly  building  of  Solomon.  The  city 
was  partially  rebuilt,  and  life  gradually  became 
more  normal.  Goldsmiths,  money-changers, 
and  dealers  in  spice  set  up  their  booths  in  the 
streets;  Tyrian  fishermen  came  thither  to  find  a 
market  for  their  fish;  and  corn  and  fruit  were 
borne  on  the  backs  of  mules  through  the  city; 
but  the  leveled  walls,  burned  gates  and  clusters 
of  ruined  houses  on  the  hill-sides  were  still  re- 
minders of  the  former  desolation.  Jerusalem  was 
still  open  and  defenceless  against  attack,  and  the 
glorious  prophecies  of  the  return  were  still  unful- 
filled. The  bright  hopes  by  which  the  colonists 
had  been  inspired  faded  into  vague  illusions; 
their  own  poverty  and  the  comparative  pros- 
perity of  their  Samaritan  neighbors  caused  a  dis- 
belief in  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God,  and 
skepticism  and  indifference  bcame  prevalent. 
The  paying  of  tithes  was  neglected,  blemished 
animals  were  offered  as  sacrifices,  Jewish  wives 
were  divorced  and  heathen  women  were  installed 
in  their  places. 

The  returned  exiles  were  sadly  in  need  of  the 
restraint  of  a  more  stable  government,  and  of 
the  uplift  and  inspiration  to  be  supplied  by  the 
coming  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah. 

A  correspondence  as  frequent  as  the  scanty 


14  THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD 

means  of  communication  would  permit,  was 
carried  on  between  the  two  colonies,  and  in  B.  C. 
458,  Ezra,  bearing  many  costly  gifts  and  a  letter 
from  Artaxerxes  which  gave  him  full  authority 
to  reform  conditions  in  Judea,  set  out  with  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-two  Jewish  families  to  bring 
the  message  of  the  law  to  the  colony  at  Jeru- 
salem. The  journey  was  commenced  in  April, 
but  it  was  midsummer  before  the  travellers 
reached  their  destination,  where  they  were  joy- 
ously received  and  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving  were 
offered  for  their  safe  arrival. 

Ezra  had  not  been  long  in  Jerusalem  when  he 
discovered  that  many  of  its  most  prominent 
citizens,  including  priests  and  Levites,  had 
married  heathen  wives,  and  that  these  strangers 
were  admitted  to  the  intimacy  of  family  worship 
and  entrusted  with  the  important  task  of  rearing 
half-Jewish  children.  Such  a  transgression  of 
the  Mosaic  law  had  been  unknown  in  Babylon, 
where  the  Jews  had  little  or  no  social  intercourse 
with  their  heathen  neighbors,  and  Ezra's  grief 
and  repugnance  knew  no  bounds.  He  tore  his 
hair  and  beard,  rent  his  inner  and  outer  garment, 
and  sat  motionless  all  day  in  the  court  of  the 
temple.  We  can  easily  imagine  the  prestige  of 
this  wealthy  Babylonian  Jew  among  the  poverty- 
stricken  colonists  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  tremen- 
dous influence  exerted  by  his  public  display  of 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  15 

horror  at  their  wickedness.  The  people  gathered 
about  him  weeping,  and  when  evening  came, 
he  began  a  long  wailing  speech,  half-prayer, 
half-address,  in  which  he  attributed  all  the 
misfortunes  and  hardships  of  the  past  to 
their  sin,  and  demanded  not  only  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Mosaic  law  which  prohib- 
its marriage  with  foreigners,  but  added  to  it 
a  requirement  of  his  own,  the  immediate  divorce- 
ment of  all  heathen  wives.  These  strangers  and 
their  innocent  children  were  to  be  turned  adrift 
like  Hagar  and  Ishmael,  but  without  the  loaf 
and  water-skin,  or  the  blessing  of  their  husbands 
and  fathers.  The  excitement  which  prevailed 
has  been  compared  by  Professor  Cornill  to  the 
intense,  but  short-lived  enthusiasm  of  a  Metho- 
dist revival  meeting.  The  people  acknowledged 
their  guilt  and  promised  with  fear  and  trembling 
to  do  all  that  Ezra  desired,  but  when  an  assembly 
gathered  three  months  later  to  consider  the 
matter,  the  affair  had  assumed  a  different  aspect. 
The  claims  of  natural  affection  had  reasserted 
themselves,  and  the  prominent  Jews  who  had 
married  the  daughters  of  native  heathen  magnates 
and  Persian  officials  hesitated  to  incur  the  con- 
sequence of  obeying  Ezra's  demands.  They 
made  excuses  to  delay  the  issue,  pleading  the  in- 
clemency of  the  weather  and  the  imprudence  of 
deciding  so  important  a  matter  in  one  day  or 


16  THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD 

two,  and  finally  insisting  that  the  whole  affair 
be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  committee.  The 
committee  was  appointed,  but  it  is  evident  that 
it  accomplished  little  beyond  obtaining  the 
long  list  of  names  with  which  Ezra's  narrative 
ends,  and  that  the  annals  of  the  next  thirteen  years 
were  suppressed  to  conceal  his  chagrin  an'd  dis- 
appointment. He  vanishes  from  the  record,  and 
we  can  only  conjecture  that  he  rebuilt  the  walls  of 
the  city  and  that  his  work  was  destroyed  by  the 
foreign  potentates  to  whom  hfe  attempted  re- 
form had  been  most  distasteful. 

In  B.  c.  444,  a  band  of  Jewish  travellers 
brought  the  sad  news  of  the  overthrown  walls 
and  frequent  murders  which  occurred  in  the 
roads  about  Jerusalem  to  Nehemiah  at  the 
Persian  court.  Overcome  with  grief  and  anxiety, 
he  obtained  a  twelve  years'  leave  of  absence  from 
Artaxerxes,  who  also  made  him  governor  of 
Judea  and  gave  him  full  authority  to  rebuild  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem.  He  set  out  at  once  with  his 
"firman,"  his  royal  guard,  and  retinue  of  slaves, 
and  only  three  or  four  days  after  his  arrival  at 
Jerusalem,  began  his  work.  Nehemiah  evidently 
took  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  by  storm. 
They  could  no  more  withstand  his  enthusiasm 
and  generosity  than  they  could  escape  his 
thorough  and  systematic  vigilance.  Every  class 
of  society  was  obliged  to  take  part  in  the  work, 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  17 

and  to  each  family  was  assigned  the  portion  of 
the  wall  next  its  own  dwelling.  Thus  every  in- 
habitant might  regard  the  part  he  had  himself 
constructed  as  his  own. 

Obstacles  only  stimulated  the  energy  and  per- 
sistency of  the  new  governor.  When  Sanballat, 
the  Horonite,  and"  Tobiah,  the  Ammonite,  who 
had  regarded  the  new-comer  with  envy  and  sus- 
picion since  the  first  day  of  his  arrival,  annoyed 
the  builders  by  their  threats  and  cunning  devices, 
Nehemiah  bade  each  man  wear  a  sword  while  he 
worked,  and  stationed  a  trumpeter  at  his  own 
side  that  all  might  gather  about  him  should  the 
alarm  sound  to  summon  assistance.  Many  times 
the  Samaritans  endeavored  to  mislead  and  en- 
trap the  resourceful  governor,  and  each  time  he 
escaped,  responding  to  their  wily  invitations  with 
courteous  sarcasm,  telling  them  he  was  engaged  in 
a  great  work  which  he  was  unable  to  leave. 

When  the  poor  who  had  given  up  their 
daily  means  of  subsistence  that  they  might 
join  in  the  work,  were  cheated  and  oppressed 
by  the  rich  money  lenders,  Nehemiah  put 
the  usurers  to  shame  by  refusing  to  accept 
any  salary,  and  kept  open  house,  enter- 
taining one  hundred  and  fifty  guests  at  his  own 
table  daily,  regaling  them  with  dishes  so  choice 
that  he  dwells  upon  their  enumeration  with 
evident  satisfaction. 


18  THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD 

Every  day  the  builders  labored  from  the  rising 
of  the  sun  till  the  stars  appeared,  and  day  and 
night,  Nehemiah  superintended  the  work,  never 
once  removing  his  clothes  from  the  day  the  wall 
was  commenced  until  the  day  of  its  completion. 
In  spite  of  all  hindrances,  the  work  was  accom- 
plished in  fifty-two  days,  and  its  dedication  was 
celebrated  amidst  great  rejoicing.  Two  long 
processions  including  men,  women  and  children 
marched  to  the  sound  of  trumpet  and  song  around 
the  city  on  the  top  of  the  newly-made  fortifi- 
cation, and  "the  joy  of  Jerusalem  was  heard  even 
afar  off." 

Faith  and  hope  had  been  reawakened  by  de- 
votion and  self-sacrifice;  the  time  was  now  ripe 
for  the  work  which  Ezra  had  been  compelled  to 
drop;  and,  just  here,  when  the  services  of  an 
efficient  scribe  were  indispensable  to  the  progress 
of  the  reform,  he  reappears  in  the  narrative. 
We  do  not  know  how  his  years  of  seclusion  had 
been  spent,  but  it  is  possible  that  he  had  been 
revising  his  code  of  laws  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  colony  at  Jerusalem,  and  his  severity  had 
doubtless  been  softened  by  his  recent  failure. 
The  people  gathered  by  the  water  gate  and 
begged  him  to  read  the  commands  of  God  from 
his  sacred  scrolls.  It  was  early  in  the  morning 
when  he  mounted  the  wooden  pulpit  which  had 
been  prepared  for  him  there,  and  until  noon  a 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  19 

great  congregation  listened  eagerly  to  his  read- 
ing. In  order  that  the  law  might  be  perfectly 
understood,  Levites  went  to  and  fro  among  the 
assembled  people,  explaining  each  passage  as 
soon  as  it  had  been  read.  When  the  members  of 
the  congregation  wept  because  they  had  so  often 
disobeyed  the  holy  precepts,  they  were  restrained 
by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  who  told  them  it  was 
not  a  time  for  mourning,  but  for  rejoicing. 

A  few  days  later  the  feast  of  tabernacles 
was  celebrated  as  the  law  prescribed,  and  each 
day  of  the  feast,  Ezra  read  to  the  people  from 
the  holy  books.  The  twenty-fourth  day  of  the 
same  month  was  appointed  as  a  day  of  general 
confession  and  repentance,  and  a  vow  to  obey 
the  law  was  signed  and  sealed  by  the  heads  of 
families.  In  a  written  covenant,  they  promised 
to  abstain  forevermore  from  marriages  with  for- 
eigners, to  observe  the  Sabbath  and  Sabbatical 
year,  to  pay  tithes  for  the  support  of  the  temple 
worship,  and  to  bring  all  the  first  fruits  of  their 
substance  as  an  offering  to  the  house  of  God. 

The  day  on  which  this  first  "great  assembly" 
was  held  has  most  appropriately  been  called  the 
birthday  of  Judaism,  and  its  far-reaching  sig- 
nificance cannot  be  over-estimated,  for  it  was  then 
that  the  customs  peculiar  to  the  Jewish  religion 
first  became  integral  parts  of  Jewish  life.  The 
Shemoneh  Esreh  or  eighteen  benedictions,  the 


20  THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD 

prayer  which  at  a  later  date  every  Jewish  man, 
woman  and  child  was  compelled  by  the  oral 
tradition  to  repeat  three  times  a  day,  owed  its 
origin  to  this  first  great  assembly,  and  from  the 
stress  laid  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  upon  the  im- 
portance of  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Mosaic 
law,  sprang  the  synagogue,  the  "bearer  and 
banner"  of  Judaism.  The  foundation  for 
barriers  far  more  effective  than  city  walls  was 
thus  laid,  and  behind  this  solid  wall  of  separation, 
the  religion  from  which  Christianity  was  to 
spring,  was  protected  from  dissolution. 

At  first  there  was  frequent  backsliding,  and 
during  Nehemiah's  absence  in  Persia,  the  law 
was  boldly  broken  by  those  who  should  have  been 
its  most  loyal  supporters.  Eliashib,  the  high 
priest,  prepared  a  chamber  for  the  Samaritan 
Tobiah  within  the  precincts  of  the  temple  itself; 
the  house  of  God  was  forsaken  by  the  Levites 
and  singers  because  tithes  were  no  longer  paid 
for  their  support;  the  Sabbath  was  desecrated, 
and  mixed  marriages  were  again  contracted. 
Nehemiah's  vigorous  reforms  on  his  return  led 
to  a  further  weeding  out  of  the  ranks.  Tobiah's 
household  furniture  was  ejected  with  violence 
from  the  temple,  and  the  chamber  was  cleansed 
from  the  pollution  of  his  contaminating  presence. 
The  gates  of  the  city  were  closed  at  sunset  on 
Friday,  and  until  the  evening  of  the  following 


EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH  21 

Saturday,  no  foreign  merchant  was  allowed  to 
bring  his  wares  within  or  even  to  linger  outside 
the  walls.  The  offending  husbands  of  foreign 
wives  received  drastic  treatment  from  the  ener- 
getic governor.  He  flew  at  them,  cursed  them, 
pulled  their  hair,  and  made  them  solemnly  swear 
that  their  sons  and  daughters  should  not  follow 
their  example.* 

Manasseh,  the  son  of  the  high  priest  Eliashib, 
was  driven  from  the  city  because  he  had  married 
Sanballat's  daughter  Nicaso,  and  would  not  give 
her  up.  With  other  discontented  priests,  he  es- 
tablished a  Samaritan  worship,  which  led  to  the 
building  of  a  rival  temple  on  Mt.  Gerizim  where 
all  who  did  not  wish  to  keep  the  law  established 
by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  might  worship  God  in  the 
old-fashioned  way. 

The  record  of  Nehemiah's  last  reforms  closes 
the  account  of  his  public  works  and,  as  his  book 
marks  the  end  of  Old  Testament  History, 
we  must  now  begin  to  grope  our  way  through 
that  period  of  darkness  and  obscurity  which  is 
lighted  by  the  scanty  records  of  the  Apocrypha. 

*  Dr.    A.    B.    Davidson's    summary    of    Ezra    and  Nehemiah 

characterizes    the    two    men    better    than    several  pages    of 

analysis  and  commentary.  "Ezra  tore  his  own  hair,  but 
Nehemiah  tore  the  other  fellow's  hair." 


PART   II 
THE  GREEK  PERIOD.  333—160  B.  c. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  HELLENISM 

An  uneventful  century  of  subjection  to  Persian 
rule,  scarcely  mentioned  in  Jewish  annals, 
followed  the  reforms  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah. 
At  its  close,  the  calm  was  broken  by  a  wave  of 
excitement,  and  the  eyes  of  not  only  the  Jewish 
nation,  but  of  all  Syria  and  Egypt,  were  turned 
toward  Alexander  the  Great  as  he  played  his 
brief  but  brilliant  part  in  the  drama  of  history. 
The  picture  engraved  upon  Jewish  hearts  and 
minds  by  Alexander's  conquests  in  Syria  is  re- 
flected in  the  apocalyptic  visions  of  Daniel,  who 
beheld  the  youthful  Macedonian  as  an  Ionian 
goat  leaping  swiftly  eastward  with  feet  that 
hardly  touched  the  ground,  smiting  with  his  one 
'notable'  horn  and  trampling  beneath  his  virile 
feet  the  two-horned  ram,  symbol  of  the  united 
kingdom  of  the  Medes  and  the  Persians;  thus 
establishing  a  kingdom  "strong  as  iron,  foras- 
much iron  breaketh  in  pieces  and  subdueth  all 
things." 

In  B.  c.  333,  the  Persian  empire  was  shattered 
25 


26  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

by  the  Greek  victory  of  Issus,  and  Alexander 
marched  down  through  Syria  demanding  the  oath 
of  allegiance  from  Persian  provinces,  subduing 
them  sometimes  by  force,  more  often  by  the 
magic  of  his  name.  As  Greek  histories  contain 
no  record  of  his  conquest  in  Judea,  it  is  probable 
that  the  Jews  passively  accepted  their  transfer 
from  Persian  to  Greek  dominance;  but  Jewish 
tradition,  unwilling  to  accept  so  prosaic  a  version 
of  its  country's  part  in  the  important  crisis,  re- 
peats both  in  Josephus  and  in  the  Talmud  a 
legendary  account  of  the  first  meeting  of  Jew  and 
Greek,  which  runs  as  follows: 

When  all  Syria  was  lurid  with  the  horrors  of 
the  siege  of  Tyre,  Alexander  sent  messengers  to 
Judea  and  Samaria  to  claim  substantial  proofs 
of  their  friendship,  reinforcements  and  arms; 
and  the  Jews  refused  to  comply  with  his  demand, 
declaring  that  they  would  be  faithful  to  the 
Persian  king  as  long  as  he  lived,  but  the  servile 
Samaritans  willingly  accepted  the  conqueror  as 
their  sovereign  and  sent  seven  thousand  soldiers 
to  join  his  army.  Angered  by  the  disobedience 
of  the  Jews,  Alexander  marched  with  his  army 
toward  Jerusalem,  guided  by  the  eager  Samar- 
itans, who  saw  in  the  promised  destruction  of  the 
holy  city  a  long-sought  revenge  for  Jewish 
insults.  As  they  halted  upon  the  heights  of 
Mizpeh  which  overlook  the  city,  a  long  pro- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  HELLENISM  27 

cession,  clad  in  white,  issued  from  its  gates.  It 
was  led  by  Jaddua,  the  high  priest,  dressed  in  the 
purple  and  scarlet  robes  of  his  office  and  wearing 
upon  his  head  the  miter  bearing  the  gold  plate 
upon  which  the  name  of  Jehovah  was  engraved. 
The  formal  march  continued  all  night  to  the 
sound  of  clashing  cymbals  before  the  procession 
reached  the  height  upon  which  the  Greek  army 
was  stationed.  While  his  soldiers  waited  for 
the  command  to  fall  upon  the  long  white  line 
and  destroy  it,  Alexander,  to  their  amazement 
alighted  from  his  chariot,  advanced  alone,  and 
fell  upon  his  knees  before  the  Jewish  leader. 
When  asked  why  he,  whom  all  men  adored, 
bowed  before  the  high  priest,  he  replied  that  he 
worshipped  not  Jaddua,  but  the  one  true  God, 
whose  name  was  inscribed  upon  the  priestly 
miter,  explaining  to  Parmenio,  his  favorite  gen- 
eral, alone,  that  years  before  in  Dios  of  Mace- 
donia, such  a  one  in  such  a  habit  had  appeared 
to  him  in  a  dream,  foretelling  his  Persian  and 
Egyptian  victories,  and  urging  him  to  cross  the 
sea  without  delay. 

Led  by  the  venerable  high  priest,  the  youthful 
king  entered  the  holy  city,  where  he  offered  a 
sacrifice  in  accordance  with  Jaddua's  direction, 
and  beheld  upon  the  sacred  records  Daniel's 
prophecy  of  his  wonderful  career.  So  pleasing 
did  he  find  this  proof  of  Jewish  wisdom,  that  he 


28  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

willingly  granted  to  the  multitude,  even  to  such 
as  wished  to  join  his  army,  the  privilege  of  ob- 
serving the  religious  customs  of  their  ancestors 
and  freedom  from  tribute  during  the  Sabbat- 
ical year,  while  the  unfortunate  Samaritan  guides, 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  their  Jewish  enemies, 
were  fastened  to  the  tails  of  horses  and  dragged 
through  thorns  and  briars  to  the  site  of  their 
temple  on  Mt.  Gerizim. 

A  few  substantial  grains  of  truth  rest  beneath 
the  elaborate  embroidery  of  this  tale,  highly 
colored  as  it  is  by  Jewish  prejudice,  for  history 
tells  us  that  the  Samaritans  rebelled  against  the 
conqueror  and  that  he  added  a  part  of  their 
territory  to  Judea;  but  the  Jews  cherished  his 
memory  with  such  reverence  that  the  names  of 
Solomon  and  Alexander  became  synonymous. 
It  is  also  probably  true  that  Alexander,  who  be- 
lieved that  God  was  the  common  father  of  all 
men,  especially  of  the  best  men,  worshipped  the 
God  of  the  Jews  as  he  had  worshipped  the  gods 
of  other  Syrian  nations  and  granted  the  Israelites 
freedom  from  tribute  during  the  Sabbatical  year, 
hoping  in  this  way  to  gain  the  deeper  tribute 
which  he  most  desired,  the  tribute  of  an  admir- 
ation and  affection  which  should  find  expression 
in  the  adoption  of  everything  Greek. 

For  his  conception  of  conquest  was  as  daring 
as  his  military  feats.  With  his  keen  and  gifted 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  HELLENISM  29 

mind,  he  realized  that  a  kingdom  bound  to- 
gether by  force  would  not  provide  him  with  the 
memorial  which  he  wished  to  leave  in  the  Orient. 
He  conceived  the  idea  of  a  vast  empire  bound  to- 
gether and  controlled  by  a  force  more  potent 
than  the  sword,  the  force  of  Greek  civilization. 
The  path  of  his  army  might  be  traced  by 
Greek  colonists  who  built  cities  with  Greek  names 
and  Greek  forms  of  government,  by  means  of 
which  he  hoped  to  create  on  Syrian  and  Egyptian 
plains  an  atmosphere  of  Greek  influence  which 
should  color  and  permeate  Oriental  life;  to  make 
the  Greek  language  the  medium  of  Oriental 
thought  and  to  unite  East  and  West  in  one  great 
body,  whose  directing  and  inspiring  spirit  should 
be  the  culture  of  Greece.  The  character  of  this 
Greek  influence  which  hand  in  hand  with  Alex- 
ander invaded  the  East,  may  be  illumined  by  a 
backward  glance  at  the  philosophy  of  Socrates, 
in  whose  wisdom  and  nobility  early  Greek  life 
found  its  climax. 

The  son  of  Sophroniscus,  a  poor  sculptor, 
Socrates  owed  his  education  to  the  generosity  of 
one  of  his  father's  patrons.  His  early  years 
were  spent  in  his  father's  shop,  in  Greek  schools 
of  culture,  and  in  the  Greek  army  where  he  more 
than  once  displayed  a  courage  which  won  the 
admiration  of  his  fellow  soldiers.  His  fascinat- 
ing conversation,  not  less  than  his  bravery,  made 


30  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

him  attractive  to  the  young  Athenians.  Emerg- 
ing from  the  long  reveries  in  which  he  indulged, 
and  from  which  nothing  could  rouse  him,  he 
would  hold  the  youthful  Greek  nobles  spellbound 
by  the  witchery  of  his  tongue,  so  that  even  the 
elegant  Alcibiades  feared  he  might  sit  down 
beside  him  and  grow  old  while  listening  to  his 
words.  In  personal  appearance,  he  was  almost 
repulsive.  His  capacious  mind  and  lofty  spirit 
were  humbly  housed  in  the  droll  and  ungainly  body 
of  a  clown,  the  ugliness  of  which  he  accentuated 
by  going  barefoot  and  by  wearing,  summer  and 
winter,  the  same  soiled  and  worn  old  cloak.  He 
himself  is  said  to  have  claimed  that  his  turn-up 
nose,  bristling  hair,  and  thick  and  curling  upper 
lip  were  beautiful,  because  they  pointed  upward. 
As  his  jocose  and  satirical  manner  veiled  the  seri- 
ous purpose  of  his  teaching,  so  homely  and  prac- 
tical illustrations  concealed  from  careless  eyes  the 
beauty  of  the  truths  he  uttered.  With  way- 
ward passions  and  a  high  temper,  but  of  an 
intensely  religious  nature,  he  listened  ever 
to  the  divine  voice  or  daimon,  which  he  acknowl- 
edged as  the  guiding  and  restraining  influence 
of  his  life,  consulting  it  on  all  important 
occasions,  and  yielding  implicit  obedience  to  its 
whispered  warnings.  Guided  by  the  divine  voice, 
Socrates  recognized  in  the  declaration  of  the 
oracle  of  Delphi,  who  pronounced  the  son  of 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  HELLENISM  31 

Sophroniscus  the  wisest  of  Jiving  men,  a  call 
to  a  life  of  unpaid  and  patient  toil,  and  spent 
his  middle  and  later  years  upon  the  streets 
of  Athens,  teaching  young  and  old,  and  trying 
to  rescue  his  native  city  from  the  materialism  of 
the  Sophists,  who,  thwarted  in  their  speculations 
in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  universe,  denied 
the  existence  of  truth  and  found  in  the  pursuit 
of  wealth  and  pleasure  the  only  goal  of  life. 
4 'Socrates  instead  of  trying  to  account  for  the 
existence  of  the  universe  was  ever  craving  for 
a  light  to  show  him  his  own  path  through  it." 
He  found  the  light  he  sought  in  the  eternal  reali- 
ties of  the  inner  life,  virtue,  courage  and  knowl- 
edge, and  became  a  moralist  and  missionary  as 
well  as  a  philosopher.  Knowing  the  potency 
in  the  world  of  moral  conduct  of  the  never-end- 
ing train  of  thought  which  rushes  constantly 
through  the  minds  of  men,  he  confined  his  specu- 
lation to  the  nature  of  thought  and  its  propellent, 
knowledge.  So  while  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  were 
erecting  barriers  to  exclude  all  harmful  foreign 
substances  from  the  stream  of  Jewish  life,  Socra- 
tes, in  Athens,  was  attempting  to  remove  the  mud 
and  slime  of  ignorance  from  the  source  of  the 
stream  of  life,  believing  that  thought,  clarified 
and  rendered  active  by  accurate  knowledge,  would 
swiftly  find  an  outlet  in  virtue  and  good  conduct. 
For  his  philosophy  made  virtue  and  knowledge 


32  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

inseparable;  for  example,  it  was  his  conviction 
that  a  knowledge  of  the  evil  results  of  self-indul- 
gence would  make  men  temperate,  and  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  would 
lead  men  to  endure  all  suffering  and  hardship 
of  the  body  whose  life  is  transient  rather  than 
mar  the  beauty  of  the  spirit  whose  life  is  eternal. 
But  men  must  do  right  because  it  was  right, 
without  thought  of  reward  or  punishment.  He 
sought  always  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  soul 
rather  than  the  wants  of  the  body,  and  believed 
that  the  perception  of  outward  justice,  goodness 
and  truth  was  dependent  on  the  innate  justice, 
goodness  and  truth  of  him  who  beheld. 

To  convince  men  that  they  saw  fundamental 
truths  blurred  and  distorted  through  the  defective 
window  of  their  own  ignorance,  and  to  lead  them 
to  look  at  life  through  the  pure  crystal  of  perfect 
knowledge,  he  employed  his  famous  method  of 
cross-examination,  discarding  books  as  able 
neither  to  ask  questions  or  argue.  If  a  by- 
stander were  so  unfortunate  as  to  consider 
his  knowledge  of  any  point  infallible,  Socrates, 
professing  ignorance  and  with  assumed  innocence, 
asked  him  to  define  it,  and  soon  pricked  the 
bubble  of  his  conceit  by  a  series  of  clever  ques- 
tions which  rendered  both  answer  and  him  who 
answered  ridiculous.  He  himself  claimed  to 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  HELLENISM  33 

be  wise  only  in  the  knowledge  of  his  own  igno- 
rance. Know  thyself  and  thy  limitations,  was 
the  maxim  of  his  teaching. 

But  the  eminent  men  whose  ignorance  he  most 
often  exposed  could  not  fail  to  resent  his  ridi- 
cule. As  Kleine  well  says,  wherever  a  great  soul 
gives  utterance  to  its  thoughts,  there  also  is 
Golgotha.  He  was  accused  of  introducing  new 
gods  and  of  corrupting  the  Athenian  youth,  was 
tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  death.  The 
severity  of  his  sentence  might  have  been  miti- 
gated, had  he  taken  advantage  of  the  privilege 
which  Athenian  law  gave  the  accused,  and  sug- 
gested some  lesser  penalty  like  exile  or  imprison- 
ment; but,  with  characteristic  audacity,  he  de- 
clared that  a  public  maintenance  in  the  Prytaneum 
would  be  his  most  appropriate  punishment,  thus 
claiming  the  honor  conferred  only  upon 
Athens'  most  distinguished  citizens.  The  fol- 
lowing extract  from  the  defence  of  Socrates  tells 
of  a  life  lived  in  consistence  with  the  principles 
he  professed: 

"Men  of  Athens,  I  honor  and  love  you;  but 
I  shall  obey  God  rather  than  you,  and  while  I 
have  life  and  strength  I  shall  never  cease  from 
the  practice  and  teaching  of  philosophy,  exhort- 
ing anyone  whom  I  meet  after  my  manner  and 
convincing  him,  saying:  *O,  my  friend,  why  do 


34  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

you  who  are  a  citizen  of  the  great  and  mighty 
and  wise  city  of  Athens,  care  so  much  about 
laying  up  the  greatest  amount  of  money  and 
honor  and  reputation  and  so  little  about  wisdom 
and  truth  and  the  greatest  improvement  of  the 
soul  which  you  never  regard  or  heed  at  all?' 

"And  this  I  should  say  to  everyone  whom  I 
meet,  young  and  old,  citizen  and  alien,  but 
especially  to  the  citizens,  inasmuch  as  they  are 
my  brethern.  For  this  is  the  command  of  God 
as  I  would  have  you  know,  and  I  believe  that  to 
this  day  no  greater  good  has  ever  happened  in 
the  State  than  my  service  to  God.  For  if  you 
kill  me,  you  will  not  easily  find  another  like  me, 
who,  if  I  may  use  such  a  ludicrous  figure  of  speech, 
am  a  sort  of  gadfly  given  to  the  State  by  God, 
and  the  state  is  like  a  great  and  noble  steed  who 
is  tardy  in  his  motions,  owing  to  his  very  size, 
and  requires  to  be  stirred  into  life.  I  am  that 
gadfly  which  God  has  given  to  the  State,  and 
all  day  long  and  in  all  places,  am  always  fastening 
upon  you,  arousing  and  persuading  and  reproach- 
ing you." 

Socrates1  last  hours  were  spent  in  prison, 
where  he  delivered  marvellous  addresses  to  his 
friends  upon  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Sur- 
rounded by  his  weeping  disciples,  he  drank  the 
fatal  cup  of  hemlock  with  a  smile,  and  cheer- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  HELLENISM  35 

fully  awaited  his  passage  to  that  unknown  world 
in  which  he  confidently  believed. 

"Speak,  History!     Who  are  life's  victors?     Unroll 

thy  long  annals  and  say 
Are   they   those  whom   the  world   called   the  victors — 

who  won  the  success  of  a  day? 
The  martyrs  or  Nero  ?     The  Spartans  who  fell  at 

Thermopylae's  tryst 
Or  the  Persians  and  Xerxes?     His  judges  or  Socrates? 

Pilate  or  Christ?'1 

The  impulse  given  to  ethical  speculation  by 
Socrates  found  a  vent  in  the  schools  of  Plato 
and  Aristotle,  but  he  effected  no  permanent  re- 
form and  none  of  his  followers  reached  his  moral 
height.  The  path  pointed  out  by  him  was  too 
stern  and  steep  for  the  feet  of  his  laughter- 
worshipping,  sun-loving  countrymen;  and  many 
of  them  found  an  excuse  for  self-indulgence  in  the 
vague  and  elastic  doctrine  of  Epicurus  which 
excused  men  from  all  moral  responsibility  and 
taught  them  to  find  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure 
and  avoidance  of  pain  the  chief  end  of  life. 

Spoiled  by  prosperity  and  enervated  by 
Oriental  luxury,  Alexander  the  Great  himself, 
although  trained  in  his  youth  to  self-restraint  and 
endurance  by  his  tutor,  Aristotle,  succumbed  in 
later  life  to  Epicureanism.  He  died  the  victim 
of  his  own  uncontrolled  passions  at  the  age  of  thir- 


36  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

ty-three,  and  his  body  was  borne  from  Babylon  to 
its  last  resting-place  at  Alexandria.  He  is  well 
characterized  by  Pope  as  the  youth  who  all  things 
save  himself  subdued. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   RULE   OF  THE   PTOLEMIES 

The  great  empire  of  Alexander  fell  with  the 
hand  that  had  created  it,  and  the  four  parts  into 
which  it  was  broken  became  the  possession  not 
of  the  best,  as  he  had  wished,  but  of  the  strongest 
who  survived  him.  Syria  was  seized  by  Seleucus, 
and  Egypt  by  Ptolemy  Lagus,  a  general  in  Alex- 
ander's army;  Palestine  occupying  an  important 
and  exposed  position  between  the  two  great 
powers,  not  unlike  that  of  Belgium  in  the  recent 
European  war,  was  the  coveted  possession  of 
both.  For  twenty  years  it  was  the  bone  of  con- 
tention over  which  the  greedy  Ptolemies  and 
Seleucids  wrangled,  but  the  year  B.  C.  301, 
when  it  became  the  undisputed  property  of  Egypt, 
marked  the  beginning  of  one  of  the  most  peaceful 
and  prosperous  eras  of  its  existence. 

The  new  Greco-Macedonian  rulers  granted 
the  Jews  especial  favors,  partly  on  account  of 
their  important  political  position  and  partly 
because  they  were  superior,  both  in  culture  and 
stability  of  character,  to  the  other  small  nations 
of  Syria  and  Egypt.  Jews  settling  in  Alexandria 

37 


38  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

were  granted  "isopolity"  or  rights  of  Citizen- 
ship equal  to  those  enjoyed  by  the  Greeks  and 
Macedonians;  and  Hebrews  colonists  in  Antioch, 
the  new  capital  of  Syria,  were  accorded  the  same 
privilege.  In  Antioch,  a  payment  of  oil  went 
with  this  right  of  citizenship,  but  as  the  Jews 
refused  to  accept  it  on  account  of  the  heathen 
rites  used  in  its  preparation,  its  value  was  made 
up  to  them  in  money. 

Attracted  by  commercial  advantages,  and  the 
friendly  disposition  of  the  new  sovereigns, 
Jewish  pioneers  were  soon  living  side  by  side 
with  Greeks  in  the  cities  founded  by  Alexander, 
and  the  fusion  of  which  he  had  dreamed  was 
gradually  taking  place.  Among  these  cities, 
the  one  which  bore  the  name  of  its  founder  and 
followed  in  its  outline  the  shape  of  his  military 
cloak,  became  the  most  important  meeting-place 
of  Greek  and  Jewish  civilization.  When  Alex- 
andria was  founded,  the  Jews  were  invited  or 
commanded  to  colonize  there,  and  in  the  war 
which  followed  Alexander's  death,  the  citizens 
of  Jerusalem  were  carried  in  a  body  to  Egypt  as 
the  prisoners  of  Ptolemy  Lagus.  Many  other 
Jews  attracted  by  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  mi- 
grated thither,  so  that  from  the  very  first,  a  large 
proportion  of  the  population  of  Alexandria  was 
Jewish.  Although  these  Alexandrian  Jews 
formed  a  community  by  themselves  in  the  eastern 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  PTOLEMIES         39 

part  of  the  city,  they  constantly  met  the  Greeks 
upon  an  equal  footing  and  needed  all  the  restrain- 
ing influence  of  the  exclusiveness  promoted  by 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  to  protect  them  from  the  fas- 
cination of  that  whirlpool  of  Greek  life  upon 
whose  brink  they  now  found  themselves.  The 
peaceful  character  of  the  Ptolemean  period 
afforded  ample  opportunity  for  the  pursuit  of  the 
gentler  arts,  and  Alexandria  became  the  rival  of 
Athens  as  a  center  of  Greek  fashion  and  Greek 
learning.  Fortunately  for  the  Jews,  the  Ptolemies 
were  wise  and  good  rulers  and  cultivated  only 
the  better  part  of  Hellenism,  for  Greece  had  long 
since  passed  her  prime  and  was  now  fast  approach- 
ing an  inglorious  old  age.  The  fair  structure  of 
her  civilization  rested  upon  worthless  and 
crumbling  foundations,  and  her  culture  was  only 
a  veneer  which  covered  the  grossest  immorality 
and  depravity.  "With  the  intellectual  perfec- 
tion went  hand  in  hand  a  moral  decay  whose 
dreadful  depths  could  not  be  hidden  even  by 
the  roses  which  bloomed  on  the  edge  of  the  abyss.1' 
The  rigidity  and  repression  of  Judaism  to  which 
the  Hebrews  were  accustomed  made  the  joyous 
grace  and  freedom  of  Greek  life  all  the  more 
alluring.  Many  of  them  adopted  Greek  man- 
ners and  customs  with  the  Greek  language;  and, 
as  moral  conduct  had  for  hundreds  of  years 
been  the  center  around  which  Jewish  wisdom 


40  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

had  revolved,  the  more  thoughtful  Jews  became 
deeply  interested  in  the  speculation  of  Greek 
philosophy. 

While  Hellenism  was  becoming  the  opponent 
of  legalism  in  Alexandria,  Judea  remained  almost 
exclusively  Jewish;  but  even  into  this  center  of 
Judaism,  although  its  doors  were  ostensibly  as 
tightly  closed  as  ever  to  foreign  influence, 
Greek  customs  and  a  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
language  had  entered  with  the  Jewish  traders 
who  came  and  went  among  the  chain  of  Greek 
cities  by  which  their  territory  was  encircled. 

Jewish  religion,  however,  was  so  ingrained 
a  part  of  Jewish  nature  that  although  it  might 
be  broadened  and  illumined  by  contact  with 
Hellenism,  it  was  in  small  danger  of  being  com- 
pletely swept  away  by  it.  The  Jews,  scattered 
throughout  Syria  and  Egypt,  far  from  the  temple 
worship  which  had  filled  so  large  a  place  in  their 
lives,  soon  built  meeting-houses  or  synagogues 
where  they  met  twice  on  Sabbaths  and  once  or 
twice  on  week  days  to  pray  and  to  listen  to  the 
reading  and  explanation  of  the  sacred  books. 
In  conducting  these  services  of  the  synagogue, 
the  Jewish  emigrants  were  quite  independent, 
but  gifts  and  sacrifices  could  be  offered  only 
at  Jerusalem,  and  the  yearly  temple  tribute  re- 
quired from  all  male  Jews  over  twenty  years  of 
age  was  a  tie  which  bound  them  to  their  mother 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  PTOLEMIES          41 

church.  Offices  for  the  collection  of  such  dues 
were  established  in  nearly  every  town,  and  men 
of  good  character  were  chosen  yearly  to  make 
a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  and  place  the  money 
in  the  hands  of  the  high  priest.  As  the  number 
of  Jews  living  abroad  was  constantly  increasing, 
the  revenue  thus  collected  must  have  been  very 
large.  The  enriched  treasury  of  the  temple  became 
tempting  booty  for  heathen  plunderers,  and  the 
importance  of  the  high  priest  was  materially 
increased  by  the  large  sum  of  money  thus  placed 
in  his  charge. 

During  the  reign  of  the  Ptolemies,  the  high 
priest  was  not  only  the  custodian  of  the  temple 
tribute,  but  collected  and  was  held  responsible 
for  the  annual  tribute  which  Palestine  paid  to 
the  Egyptian  government.  When  he  became  in 
this  way  the  secular  and  financial  head  of  the 
nation  as  well  as  its  religious  leader,  his  power 
was  almost  unlimited  and  his  importance  in  the 
community  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.*  All 
the  records  indicate  that  the  high  priests  upon 
whose  shoulders  rested  so  heavy  a  weight  of 
responsibility  were  wholly  unworthy  of  the  trust 
committed  to  their  charge,  and  that  "graft" 
was  well  known  even  in  the  third  century  B.  C. 

*  Associated  with  the  high  priest  was  the  gerousia  or  Su- 
preme Council  of  Elders,  which  afterwards  developed  into  the 
Sanhedrin.  The  date  of  its  origin  is  unknown,  but  it  is  first 
mentioned  in  the  reign  of  Antiochus  the  Great,  about  202  B.C. 
(Jos.  Ant.  XII,  iii,  3.) 


42  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

Josephus  recounts  the  energetic  measures  prac- 
ticed by  Ptolemy  Euergetes  to  recover  the  yearly 
tribute  of  twenty  talents,  all  of  which  had  been 
incautiously  appropriated  by  the  high  priest 
Onias,  and  also  mentions  the  enormous  fortunes 
which  Onias'  successors  made  by  farming  the 
revenues  they  collected.  While  the  religious 
leaders  of  the  children  of  Israel  were  engrossed, 
in  these  absorbing  financial  adventures,  the 
candlestick  at  the  entrance  of  the  temple  often 
went  out  from  lack  of  care,  and  huge  piles  of 
wood  were  insufficient  to  preserve  the  fire  on 
the  sacred  altar,  although  formerly  two  faggots 
a  day  had  kept  it  constant. 

A  gratifying  account  in  Ecclesiasticus  of  the 
high  priest  Simon,  proves  that  among  these  coun- 
terfeit Jewish  shepherds,  there  was  one  whose 
genuine  and  unselfish  life  restored  the  ancient 
honor  of  his  office  and  rekindled  with  the  sacred 
fire  of  the  altar,  the  devotion  of  the  children 
of  Israel.  "It  was  he  that  took  thought  for  his 
people  that  they  should  not  fall,  and  fortified  the 
city  against  besieging."  He  left  a  permanent 
record  of  his  public  spirit  in  the  new  and  substan- 
tial foundation  of  the  temple  which  he  built  and 
in  the  city  walls  with  which  he  replaced  those 
torn  down  by  Ptolemy  Lagus.  All  the  flowers 
of  Oriental  rhetoric  were  hardly  adequate  to 
express  the  admiration  of  the  author  of 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  PTOLEMIES          43 

Ecclesiasticus  for  this  contemporary  of  his.  As 
the  morning-star  in  the  midst  of  a  cloud,  as  lilies 
at  the  waterspring,  or  as  the  sun  shining  forth 
upon  the  temple  of  the  Most  High,  so  he  appeared 
when  the  people  gathered  about  him  as  he  came 
forth  from  the  Holy  of  Holies.  The  eulogy 
is  concluded  by  a  beautiful  description  of  the 
temple  service  conducted  by  Simon.  It  is  quoted 
here  as  an  expression  of  the  ardent  affection  felt 
by  pious  Israelites  for  the  courts  of  Jehovah. 

"When  he  took  up  the  robe  of  glory 
And  put  on  the  perfection  of  exultation 
In  the  ascent  of  the  holy  altar 
He  made  glorious  the  precinct  of  the  sanctuary. 
When  he  took  portions  out  of  the  priests'  hands 
And  stood  by  the  edge  of  the  altar 
His  brethren  as  a  garland  about  him, 
He  was  as  a  young  cedar  in  Lebanon, 
And  as  stems  of  palm  trees,  compassed  they  him  round 
about, 

"And  all  the  sons  of  Aaron  were  in  their  glory  and  the 
oblation  of  the  Lord  was  in  their  hands 

Before  all  the  congregation  of  Israel. 

And  finishing  the  service  at  the  altars 

That  he  might  adorn  the  offering  of  the  Most  High, 
the  Almighty, 

He  stretched  out  his  hand  to  the  cup 

And  poured  of  the  blood  of  the  grape; 

He  poured  out  at  the  foot  of  the  altar 

A  sweet  smelling  savour  unto  the  Most  High,  the  King 
of  all. 


44  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

Then  shouted  the  sons  of  Aaron, 

They  sounded  the  trumpets  of  beaten  work, 

They  made  a  great  noise  to  be  heard, 

For  a  remembrance  before  the  Most  High. 

Then  all  the  people  together  hasted 

And  fell  down  upon  the  earth  on  their  faces 

To  worship  their  God,  the  Almighty  God  Most  High. 

The  singers  also  praised  him  with  their  voices, 

In  the  whole  house  there  was  made  sweet  melody. 

And  the  people  besought  the  Lord  Most  High 

In  prayer  before  him  that  is  merciful 

Till  the  worship  of  the  Lord  should  be  ended. 

"And  so  they  accomplished  his  service. 

Then  he  went  down  and  lifted  up  his  hands 

Over  the  whole  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel 

To  give  blessing  to  the  Lord  with  his  lips 

And  to  glory  in  His  name. 

And  he  bowed  himself  down  in  worship  a  second  time 

To  declare  the  blessing  from  the  Most  High." 

The  book  of  Ecclesiasticus  which  contains  the 
passage  just  quoted  was  a  part  of  the  Septuagint, 
the  translation  of  the  Jewish  scriptures  into 
Greek.  This  version  of  the  Hebrew  Bible, 
which  was  the  most  important  product  of  the 
literary  activity  of  the  age,  was  probably  written 
to  meet  the  needs  of  Alexandrian  Jews  who  no 
longer  spoke  their  native  tongue ;  but  the  following 
account  of  its  origin  given  by  Josephus,  is  in 
many  respects  not  at  all  improbable.  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus  wished  to  procure,  among  other 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  PTOLEMIES          45 

literary  treasures,  a  copy  of  the  Jewish  law  for 
his  great  library  at  Alexandria.  He  therefore 
sent  messengers  to  the  high  priest  at  Jerusalem 
to  ask  for  a  copy  of  the  sacred  books,  and  with 
it,  Jewish  sages  who  should  convert  it  into  a  form 
intelligible  to  his  countrymen.  Flattered  by 
the  request  of  the  king  and  the  costly  presents 
which  accompanied  it,  the  high  priest  selected 
seventy-two  men,  six  from  each  tribe,  and  des- 
patched them  with  a  magnificent  copy  of  the 
Jewish  scriptures  to  Alexandria  where  they  were 
royally  received  and  given  seats  at  the  king's  own 
table.  Their  wisdom  was  tested  by  puzzling 
questions  and  their  marvellous  answers  were  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  the  Greek  courtiers. 
After  this  public  display  of  learning,  they  with- 
drew to  the  Island  of  Pharos  that  they  might 
pursue  their  labors  undisturbed.  Thirty-six 
half-ruined  cells  are  said  to  have  been  pointed 
out  to  later  generations  as  the  scene  of  the  trans- 
lation where,  according  to  Alexandrian  tradition, 
the  seventy-two  translators,  confined  in  pairs, 
all  produced  in  seventy-two  days,  exactly  the  same 
inspired  version  without  one  single  error  or 
omission.  The  translation  must,  in  reality,  have 
been  the  work  of  at  least  two  centuries  and  of 
several  groups  of  translators,  but  it  is  quite 
possible  that  the  translation  of  the  Pentateuch 
may  have  taken  place  in  Alexandria  at  the  insti- 


46  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

gation  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphia.  The  produc- 
tion of  the  Septuagint,  which  was  the  Bible  used 
for  centuries  not  only  by  the  Jews,  but  also  by 
Christ  and  the  early  Christian  church,  is  one  of 
the  most  momentous  events  of  the  history  of  this 
intermediate  period.  It  contained,  in  addition 
to  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
Apocryphal  or  "hidden"  books  which  were  denied 
entrance  to  later  versions. 

Two  of  these  Apocryphal  books,  Ecclesiasticus 
and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  together  with  the 
canonical  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  are  interesting  to 
the  student  of  the  period  as  records  of  the  im- 
press of  Hellenism  upon  their  respective  authors. 

Ecclesiasticus  was  written  in  Palestine  by 
Jesus,  the  son  of  Sirach,  and  was  revised  and 
translated  into  Greek  by  his  grandson  during  the 
reign  of  Ptolemy  Euergetes.  It  combines  shrewd 
worldly  wisdom  with  unworldly  piety,  and  has 
been  well-described  by  a  modern  author  as  the 
sanctification  of  common  sense.  Directions  for 
behaviour  under  all  circumstances  are  found 
upon  its  pages,  from  the  most  primitive  and 
homely  rules  in  regard  to  table  manners  to  subtle 
and  artistic  essays  on  such  subjects  as  the  futility 
of  dreams  and  the  superiority  of  the  man  of 
learning  to  the  man  of  affairs.  The  garb  in 
which  the  author's  thought  is  clothed  is  half- 
Greek,  half-Hebrew,  and  certain  figures  of  speech 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  PTOLEMIES          47 

indicate  a  familiarity  with  Homer  and  other 
Greek  authors;  but  it  is  evident  that  his 
inner  life  was  undisturbed  by  Hellenism,  for  the 
spirit  of  the  book  is  plainly  Hebrew.  UA11 
wisdom  cometh  from  the  Lord"  and  is  embodied 
in  the  law  of  Moses.  Virtue  is  rewarded  by 
prosperity  and  wickedness  punished  by  adversity 
during  this  earthly  life,  and  there  is  no  certainty 
of  a  life  beyond  the  grave. 

Certain  passages  suggest  that  Ecclesiasticus 
was  read  and  studied  by  Christ  ami  his  disciples. 
The  dissertation  of  St.  James  on  the  use  of  the 
tongue  contains  many  thoughts  similar  to  those 
bf  Jesus,  the  son  of  Sirach,  on  the  same  subject, 
and  Ecc.  xxviii;  1-3,  "Forgive  thy  neighbor  the 
hurt  he  hath  done  thee;  and  then  thy  sins  shall 
be  pardoned  when  thou  prayest.  Man  cher- 
isheth  anger  against  man;  and  doth  he  seek  heal- 
ing from  God?"  cannot  fail  to  recall  one  of  the 
noble  utterances  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  * 

The  simple  melody  of  Hebrew  faith  produces 
harsh  discords  in  the  mind  of  the  author  of  Ec- 
clesiastea,  when  combined  with  the  refrain  of  the 
less  happy  phases  of  Greek  philosophy.  He 
can  see  no  divinely  ordered  progress  in  life,  but 
only  a  weary  round  of  meaningless  events  wretch- 
edly limited  by  the  grave.  Yet  he  looks  back 
upon  the  faith  of  his  childhood  as  the  one  sun- 

*  Material  taken  from  Moulton's  Modern   Reader's  Bible. 


48  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

lit  spot  in  the  dreary  landscape  of  his  existence, 
and  clings  to  the  old  belief  in  God  and  duty  as 
an  indispensable  but  inadequate  refuge  from  the 
storms  of  pessimism  and  scepticism  into  which 
he  has  drifted.  The  book  was  probably  written 
by  an  Alexandrian  Jew  about  B.C.  200,  but  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  Greek  etiquette  of  the  period 
which  forbade  an  author  to  claim  the  honor  of 
his  own  work,  was  ascribed  to  its  hero  Solomon. 
Hellenism  and  Judaism  move  in  ideal  and  har- 
monious union  across  the  pages  of  the  Apocry- 
phal Wisdom  of  Solomon.  The  Alexandrian 
Jew  who  was  its  author,  standing  on  the  border 
line  between  Hebrew  religion  and  Greek  philos- 
ophy, partook  freely  of  the  best  fruits  of  both, 
especially  of  those  Platonic  writings  inspired  by 
the  almost  Christian  life  and  death  of  Socrates. 
He  sees  the  guiding  hand  of  a  loving  heavenly 
Father  in  the  history  of  his  people  and  finds  in 
the  Greek  conception  of  immortality,  the  solu- 
tion of  all  the  woes  and  mysteries  of  this  earthly 
life.  Ancient  Hebrew  wisdom  is  personified 
by  him  and  becomes,  like  the  Greek  logos  or 
word  of  St.  John,  the  medium  through  which  God 
reveals  himself  to  men.  Ewald  asserts  that 
"in  the  deep  glow  which,  with  all  its  apparent 
tranquillity,  streams  through  its  veins,  we  have 
a  premonition  of  John;  and  in  its  conception  of 
heathenism,  a  preparation  for  Paul,  like  a  warm 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  PTOLEMIES          49 

rustle  of  spring,  ere  the  time  is  fully  come." 
And  Gladstone  sees  in  it  the  forerunner  of  true 
religion  "which  alone  can  flourish,  not  by  a 
policy  of  isolation,  but  by  filling  itself  with  a 
humane  and  genial  warmth." 

In  the  case  of  each  one  of  these  three  authors 
whose  contact  with  Hellenism  may  have  been  typ- 
ical of  the  wider  experience  of  their  race,  Juda- 
ism, nourished  from  infancy  upon  the  wholesome 
moral  food  of  the  ten  Mosaic  Commandments, 
had  sufficient  stamina  to  imbibe  the  rather  dan- 
gerous tonic  of  Greek  culture  without  succumb- 
ing to  the  poison  -of  its  skepticism  and  immor- 
ality. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    PERSECUTION 

The  friendly  relations  between  Egypt  and  Pal- 
estine were  severed  by  the  worthlessness  and 
degeneracy  of  Ptolemy  IV  and  when,  at  his 
death,  his  kingdom  was  left  in  the  helpless 
hands  of  his  five-year-old  son,  the  Jews  willingly 
joined  Antiochus  (III)  the  Great,  in  his  efforts 
to  make  Palestine  a  part  of  his  own  kingdom 
of  Syria.  The  Egyptian  regent  appealed  to 
Rome  for  aid,  placing  the  young  king  under  her 
guardianship,  but  Rome  was  too  busily  engaged 
in  war  with  Hannibal  to  interfere  in  behalf  of 
her  infant  ward.  Antiochus  took  advantage  of 
the  prevailing  confusion  to  snatch  the  prize 
long  coveted  by  Syria,  and  in  B.C.  198,  Palestine 
became  once  again  a  province  of  the  northern 
kingdom.  The  Syrian  king  who  was  eager  to 
retain  both  the  territory  and  friendship  of  his 
new  subjects,  granted  them  even  greater  privi- 
leges than  they  had  enjoyed  under  the  Ptolemies. 

The  expenses  of  the  temple  service  were  to 
be  borne  by  the  Syrian  government,  and  the 

so 


THE  PERSECUTION  51 

temple  and  everything  connected  with  it  was 
rendered  non-taxable;  foreigners  were  excluded 
from  the  temple  and  unclean  animals  from  the 
city;  Jewish  slaves  were  liberated;  the  citizens 
of  Jerusalem  and  all  who  should  become  citizens 
within  a  certain  period  of  time  were  granted 
freedom  from  taxation  for  three  years,  and 
after  that,  were  to  pay  only  two-thirds  of  the 
alloted  tax. 

The  overwhelming  kindness  and  generosity 
of  the  Syrian  king  proved  most  favorable  to  the 
growth  of  Hellenism  in  Judea,  not  the  nobler 
Hellenism  which  had  prevailed  in  Alexandria, 
but  the  corrupt  Hellenism  of  Antioch  in  all  its 
luxury  and  vanity.  The  baser  elements  of  the 
Greek  life  thus  introduced  developed  rapidly, 
even  among  the  priests,  many  of  whom  longed 
to  be  freed  from  the  irksome  restraint  of  the 
law;  and  Judaism,  at  last  assailed  at  its  very 
heart,  might  have  shared  the  fate  of  other 
oriental  religions  and  have  been  altogether  ob- 
literated or  so  saturated  with  Greek  culture  as 
to  lose  its  true  essence  had  the  Jews  not  been 
roused  to  consciousness  by  the  accession  to  the 
Syrian  throne  of  that  Vile  person  of  fierce  coun- 
tenance, understanding  dark  sentences,  and  full 
of  marvellous  words'  portrayed  in  the  visions  of 
Daniel — Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the  Nero  of 
Jewish  History. 


52  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

Antiochus  Epiphanes  was  of  dual  nature, 
extravagantly  cruel  and  inconsistently  kind  by 
turns,  a  weather-vane  blown  to  and  fro  by  the 
powerful  breezes  of  his  own  erratic  impulses. 
The  most  arbitrary  of  Eastern  despots,  infur- 
iated by  any  opposition  to  his  imperious  will, 
he  at  the  same  time  affected  a  spectacular  friend- 
ship and  familiarity  with  the  common  people, 
chatting  and  carousing  with  anyone  whom  he 
might  chance  to  meet,  bestowing  costly  presents 
upon  complete  strangers,  and  indulging  in  the 
most  unkingly  and  undignified  escapades.  He 
dispersed  parties  of  young  merry-makers,  rush- 
ing in  upon  them  with  bag-pipe  and  horn;  he 
poured  the  perfume  prepared  for  his  own  bath 
upon  the  unsuspecting  head  of  a  visitor  at  the 
public  bath-house,  and  then  joined  the  other 
bathers  in  their  rough  scramble  for  a  portion  of 
the  precious  ointment.  His  incongruous  de- 
light in  kingly  splendor  and  fantastic  pranks 
reached  its  height  in  a  brilliant  pageant,  which 
he  had  prepared  to  rival  in  magnificence  the 
triumphal  processions  of  Rome,  and  in  which 
he  himself  assumed  the  role  of  chief  mounte- 
bank and  clown,  riding  in  and  out  upon  a  common 
work-horse.  Public  opinion  generously  excused 
him  from  all  responsibility  for  his  eccentric  con- 
duct by  changing  his  surname,  Epiphanes,  bril- 
liant, to  Epimanes,  mad,  and  was  probably  cor- 


THE  PERSECUTION  53 

rect  in  assuming  that  the  strange  extremes  to 
which  he  rushed  were  the  emanations  of  a  bril- 
liant but  disordered  and  unbalanced  mind.  He 
displayed  much  ability  in  enlarging  and  rebuild- 
ing Antioch,  and  in  the  energy  and  resource 
with  which  he  pursued  his  ambition  to  make  the 
power  and  glory  of  Syria  equal  to  that  of  Rome, 
where  he  had  spent  his  youth  as  a  hostage. 
The  startling  and  the  sensational,  lavish  sacri- 
fices, splendid  gifts,  and  magnificent  buildings 
were  his  delight. 

In  the  depleted  national  treasury  which  Anti- 
ochus  inherited  along  with  the  Syrian  throne, 
we  catch  a  first  glimpse  of  the  shadow  of  that 
iron  hand  whose  relentless  grasp  was  to  become 
the  terror  of  the  Orient;  for  Rome,  returning 
from  war  with  Philip  of  Macedon,  had  de- 
manded an  explanation  of  Syria's  treatment  of 
her  Egyptian  ward  and  had  enforced  her  demand 
with  the  sword.  The  enervated  Seleucids  were 
no  match  for  the  stern  and  hardy  Romans. 
They  were  easily  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Mag- 
nesia and  the  price  paid  by  Syria  for  Palestine 
was  an  almost  impossible  military  tax  of  twelve 
years*  duration. 

To  meet  the  exorbitant  demands  of  Rome,  the 
Syrian  kings  rifled  the  treasuries  of  the  heathen 
temples  scattered  throughout  their  territory  and 
in  the  reign  of  Seleucus  IV,  the  elder  brother  and 


54  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

predecessor  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  an  attack 
was  made  upon  the  treasury  of  the  Jewish  temple. 
The  panic  occurring  in  Jerusalem,  when  Heli- 
odorus,  the  king's  tax  collector,  entered  the 
temple  and  demanded  the  sacred  treasure  from 
the  high  priest,  is  vividly  portrayed  in  Second 
Maccabees.  The  matrons,  girt  with  sack  cloth, 
rushed  distracted  through  the  streets  of  the  city, 
while  the  maidens  peered  anxiously  from  doors 
and  windows;  the  priests  wearing  their  robes  of 
office  lay  prostrate  before  the  temple  altar,  and 
the  high  priest  was  in  an  agony  of  grief  and  ap- 
prehension. All  Jerusalem  bowed  in  prayer,  im- 
ploring the  mercy  and  protection  of  Almighty 
God.  The  prayer  of  the  grief-stricken  city  was 
answered  by  the  apparition  at  the  temple  treasury 
of  three  angel  warriors  before  whose  terrific  on- 
slaught the  unfeeling  Heliodorus  fell,  like  a  leaf 
in  the  wind,  to  the  pavement.  He  was  borne 
from  the  temple  on  a  litter  by  his  terrified  attend- 
ants and  was  recalled  from  death  only  by  the 
prayers  of  the  blameless  high-priest  Onias. 

Our  matter-of-fact  twentieth  century  minds 
might  suggest  as  an  interpretation  of  this  won- 
drous tale  that  the  divinely  inspired  faith,  cour- 
age, and  determination  of  the  good  and  faithful 
Onias  were  the  celestial  champions  that  saved 
the  treasure  of  the  sanctuary  from  Heliodorus 
and  his  robber  band;  for  Onias,  like  his  father 


THE  PERSECUTION  56 

and  predecessor,  Simon  II,  was  unswerving  in  his 
loyalty  to  his  religion,  and  his  devotion  to  the 
duties  of  his  holy  office.  When  the  faith  of  his 
contemporaries  grew  dim  or  failed,  he  was  still 
a  bright  and  shining  light  to  his  generation.  He 
became  later  the  leader  of  the  faithful  or  pious 
Jews  while  his  younger  brother  Jason  led  the 
Hellenists. 

Syria's  attempt  to  deprive  the  Jewish  temple 
of  its  gold  caused  a  sharp  division  between  the 
Hellenists  and  the  Jews  who  adhered  to  their 
native  customs  and  retained  the  use  of  their 
native  language,  a  breach  which  was  widened  by 
the  entrance  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  upon  his 
career  as  king  of  Syria,  for  that  irresponsible 
monarch  was  impelled  by  some  wayward  wind  of 
fancy  to  desire  the  complete  Hellenization  of  the 
unfortunate  Jews.  The  two  spurs  by  which  he 
was  driven  to  a  constantly  increasing  activity  in 
carrying  out  his  policy  were  his  urgent  need  of 
money  and  the  treachery  of  two  Jewish  priests 
of  the  Hellenist  party,  described  in  the  pungent 
language  of  Second  Maccabees  as  "Jason,  that 
ungodly  wretch  and  no  high-priest"  and  Mene- 
laus,  "having  the  fury  of  a  cruel  tyrant  and  the 
rage  of  a  wild  beast." 

The  high-priesthood,  in  accordance  with  the 
established  custom  of  the  Syrian  government,  was 
sold  by  Antiochus  to  the  highest  bidder  and  was 


*6  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

obtained  by  Jason,  who  not  only  promised  the 
king  a  large  sum  of  money,  but  cunningly  begged 
permission  to  enroll  his  fellow-citizens  as  Anti- 
ocheans  and  to  erect  a  gymnasium  in  Jerusalem 
where  he  might  instruct  the  Jewish  youth  in 
Greek  customs.  Under  Jason's  leadership,  the 
work  of  Hellenization  was  carried  on  with  vigor 
and  success.  The  courts  of  the  temple  were  for- 
saken and  the  new  Greek  gymnasium  was 
thronged  with  Jewish  youth,  who  engaged  daily 
in  the  games  of  the  palaestra,  shocking  Jewish 
modesty  by  their  Greek  attire.  Even  the  priests 
neglected  the  duties  of  their  office  and  rushed 
from  the  temple  to  the  gymnasium  when  they 
heard  the  signal  for  throwing  the  quoit  which 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  games.  With 
an  elasticity  of  religious  belief  which  be- 
lied his  Jewish  origin,  Jason  even  went  so 
far  as  to  send  a  sacrifice  to  the  quad- 
rennial feast  of  Hercules  at  Tyre;  but 
the  messengers  entrusted  with  the  offering  found 
their  mission  so  distasteful  that  at  their  request, 
the  money  for  the  sacrifice  was  used  instead  for 
the  building  of  triremes. 

Jason's  career  as  high  priest  had  lasted  only 
three  years  when  he  was  superseded  by  a  rival 
Hellenist,  Menelaus,  who  obtained  the  coveted 
office  by  out-bidding  all  opponents,  but  was  al- 
most immediately  deposed  by  Antiochus  because 


THE  PERSECUTION  57 

he  was  unable  to  pay  the  enormous  sum  of  money 
he  had  promised.  Fortunately  for  Menelaus, 
Antiochus  was  called  in  haste  to  war  in  Egypt. 
In  his  absence,  the  renegade  priest  bribed  the 
king's  deputy  with  golden  vessels  stolen  from  the 
temple,  executed  everyone  who  placed  an  obstacle 
in  his  devious  path,  and  reinstated  himself  in 
office. 

Among  his  victims  was  Onias,  the  leader  of  the 
faithful,  who  fearlessly  denounced  Menelaus  for 
his  shameless  use  of  the  consecrated  gold  and  fled 
to  the  temple  of  Daphne  from  the  violence  which 
was  sure  to  follow.  He  was  dragged  from  this 
place  of  refuge  and  murdered  by  hired  assassins 
with  a  brutality  which  excited  indignation  of  both 
the  Hellenists  and  the  faithful.*  Even  the  in- 
consistent Antiochus  is  said  to  have  shed  bitter 
tears  on  hearing  of  the  result  of  his  own  wicked- 
ness. 

Two  years  later,  in  B.  c.  170,  Jason,  encour- 
aged by  a  false  report  of  the  absent  king's  death, 
made  an  attempt  to  regain  the  office  from  which 

*The  murdered  Onias  III  left  a  son,  Onias  IV,  who  sought 
refuge  from  the  persecution  in  the  Court  of  Ptolemy  Philometor. 
There  he  conceived  the  idea  of  transferring  the  center  of  the 
imperilled  national  religion  to  Egypt  and,  about  160  B.C., 
obtained  permission  from  Ptolemy  to  build  a  temple  resembling 
the  one  at  Jerusalem  in  the  district  of  Helioplis  near  the  city 
of  Leontoplis.  The  new  temple,  since  it  checked  the  flow  of 
Jewish  tribute  money  to  Palestine,  received  the  favor  and  pro- 
tection of  Egyptian  sovereigns;  and  although  Leontopolis  was 
but  a  feeble  rival  to  Jerusalem,  the  Egytian  Jews  maintained 
public  worship  there  until  the  time  of  Christ. 


58  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

he  had  been  deposed.  Gathering  a  force  of  a 
thousand  men,  he  made  a  large  breach  in  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem,  through  which  he  entered  the 
city,  shedding  much  blood  and  temporarily  captur- 
ing Menelaus.  He  was  unable  to  gain  a  per- 
manent victory  and  was  driven  forth  from  his 
native  land  never  to  return.  After  a  life  of 
much  adventure,  he  died  a  fugitive  in  Sparta 
and  he  that  "had  cast  out  many  unburied,  had 
none  to  mourn  for  him  nor  any  solemn  funeral 
at  all  nor  sepulcher  with  his  fathers." 

Antiochus,  returning  in  a  bad  humor  from 
Egypt,  where  his  plans  had  been  completely  frus- 
trated, chose  to  interpret  this  act  of  Jason's  as  a 
Jewish  rebellion  against  himself.  Menelaus  was 
more  firmly  established  in  his  favor  than  ever 
and  his  accumulated  wrath  descended  upon  the 
heads  of  the  innocent  Jews.  At  his  command,  a 
terrible  massacre  took  place  in  Jerusalem. 
Thousands  of  Jewish  citizens  were  cut  down  in 
the  streets  or  driven  to  the  house-tops  only  to 
meet  with  the  same  fate;  but  sadder  to  loyal 
Jews  than  the  loss  of  homes  or  loved  ones  was 
the  intrusion  of  the  heathen  king,  guided  by  the 
traitorous  Menelaus,  into  the  innermost  recess  of 
their  cherished  temple  where  he  helped  himself 
freely  to  the  great  wealth  which  had  been  saved 
from  the  robber  Heliodorus.  All  the  cherished 
articles  of  temple  furniture  which  the  wealthy 


THE  PERSECUTION  59 

Babylonian  Jews  had  sent  to  Jerusalem  by  Ezra, 
the  golden  candlestick,  the  golden  altar,  and  the 
table  for  consecrated  bread,  were  carried  away  to 
Antioch,  the  golden  candlestick  which  had  lighted 
the  entrance  to  the  temple  with  its  perpetual 
flame  falling  to  the  lot  of  the  hated  Menelaus. 

For  two  years  there  was  rest  from  persecution. 
Then  Antiochus  again  returned  from  the  south 
where  he  had  been  compelled  by  the  ultimatum 
of  Rome  to  give  up  once  for  all  his  plans  for  the 
occupation  of  Egypt,  and  once  again  the  unfor- 
tunate Jews  must  bear  the  heat  of  his  baffled  rage. 
His  undivided  attention  was  now  turned  toward 
the  Hellenization  of  Palestine.  A  massacre 
even  worse  than  that  which  had  preceded  it  was 
conducted  by  Apollonius,  the  Syrian  tax  collector, 
who  under  pretense  of  peace,  quietly  entered 
Jerusalem  upon  the  Sabbath  day.  Men  were 
slain  in  the  temple  and  synagogue,  and  women 
and  children  dragged  from  the  sanctuary  to  the 
slave-market.  The  walls  of  the  city,  which  had 
been  built  and  preserved  with  care,  were  levelled 
to  the  ground.  The  houses  were  plundered 
and  many  of  them  burned.  There  was  yet  a 
third  massacre  and  captivity,  and  the  hill  on 
which  the  ancient  palace  of  David  had  stood  was 
fortified  and  transformed  into  a  Syrian  garrison, 
a  heathen  monster  in  stone,  it  seemed  to  the  un- 
happy Jews,  looking  grimly  down  in  perpetual 


60  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

enmity  upon  the  temple  and  the  half-ruined  build- 
ings which  surrounded  it. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  October,  B.  c.  168,  the 
obsession  of  Antiochus  found  vent  in  the  mad  de- 
cree by  which  the  Jews,  with  the  religious  fervor 
of  generations  of  ancestors  flowing  in  their  veins 
and  the  impress  of  centuries  of  religious  training 
engraved  upon  their  hearts,  were  to  be  trans- 
formed at  a  single  stroke,  into  unstable  and  pagan 
Greeks.  All  were  to  be  one  people  and  every- 
one was  to  be  subject  to*  the  same  law.  The  law 
was  thoroughly  and  systematically  executed  by  a 
king's  commissioner  appointed  for  that  purpose. 
Assisted  by  minor  officers,  he  erected  in  every 
town  and  city  of  Judea  altars  upon  which  the 
Jews  were  compelled  to  offer  sacrifices  to  heathen 
gods  and,  on  the  king's  birthday,  to  taste  the  un- 
clean flesh  of  the  sacrificial  feast.  All  the  sacred 
books  which  could  be  found  were  destroyed,  and 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  ancient  rite 
of  circumcision  were  forbidden  upon  pain  of  im- 
mediate death.  Dignified  Israelites  were  com- 
pelled to  join  in  the  revels  of  the  feast  of 
Bacchus,  marching  in  the  Bacchanalian  pro- 
cession, their  gray  heads  crowned  with  festal 
wreaths  of  ivy.  The  temple  was  formally  dedi- 
cated to  the  Olympian  Jupiter  and  profaned  and 
desecrated  in  a  way  most  heart-rending  to  the  un- 
happy Hebrews.  Its  gates  were  burned,  and 


THE  PERSECUTION  61 

the  partition  which  separated  the  inner  and  outer 
courts  was  broken  down.  An  unkempt  vege- 
tation, beneath  the  shade  of  which  the  rites  of 
Daphne  took  place  in  all  their  licentiousness, 
was  allowed  to  spring  up  in  the  hitherto  well-kept 
precincts.  As  a  crowning  insult,  a  herd  of  swine 
was  slaughtered  within  the  sacred  enclosures. 
Their  blood  was  sprinkled  upon  the  sacrificial 
altar  and  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  the  sacred 
scrolls  were  soiled  and  defaced  with  broth  made 
from  the  unclean  flesh. 

Nothing  could  have  been  a  better  antidote  for 
Hellenism  than  the  hateful  and  premature  meas- 
ures by  which  Antiochus  sought  to  force  it  into  ex- 
istence. The  sharp  blows  of  the  persecution 
roused  the  Jewish  nation  from  its  lethargy.  The 
more  timid  submitted  in  terror,  but  many  clung  to 
their  faith  with  a  wealth  of  love  and  devotion 
which  fully  atoned  for  the  poverty  of  their  ideals 
and  their  conception  of  the  God  for  whom 
they  suffered.  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  might  have 
been  well  satisfied  with  the  result  of  their  work  if 
they  could  have  seen  men  die  willingly  rather  than 
transgress  one  petty  detail  of  the  law  which  they 
had  established.  The  objects  for  which  men  be- 
came martyrs,  the  distinctions  of  food,  the  ex- 
aggerated observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  the 
Sabbatical  year,  the  rite  of  circumcision,  and  the 
offering  of  sacrifice,  were  two  centuries  later  cast 


62  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

aside  by  the  choicest  spirits  of  the  Christian 
church  as  out-grown  and  worthless  superficial- 
ities ;  yet  to  the  noble  martyrs  of  the  Maccabean 
period,  each  separate  issue  was  a  glowing  coal  in 
the  living  fire  of  spiritual  freedom,  and,  as  such, 
must  be  carefully  cherished  lest  the  great  whole 
be  extinguished  and  lost. 

"O  God  of  life  and  truth,  give  us  a  dream  to  fight  for! 
Love,  honor,  faith,  to  suffer  and  to  die  for! 
For  whenever  men  die  for  a  cause,  mistaken  or  not, 
Misled  or  not,  there  truth  advances  an  imperceptible  de- 
gree." 

The  spirit  with  which  Jewish  martyrs  met 
their  fate  is  preserved  for  us  in  the  traditional 
accounts  of  Second  Maccabees.  Two  women 
who  had  circumcised  their  infants  in  spite  of  the 
king's  edict,  were  cast  headlong  from  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem  after  being  subjected  in  the  streets  of 
the  city  to  the  derisive  scorn  of  their  persecutors. 

Eleazar,  an  aged  scribe,  steadfastly  refused  to 
eat  swine's  flesh  or  to  deceive  his  tormentors  by 
substituting  lawful  meat  for  the  forbidden  food. 
He  died  the  death  of  a  martyr,  saying  with  his 
last  breath,  "I  will  show  myself  such  an  one  as  my 
age  requireth,  and  leave  a  notable  example  to 
such  as  be  young  to  die  willingly  and  courage- 
ously for  the  holy  laws." 

Most  heroic  of  all  was  that  mother  of  seven 
sons  who  after  witnessing  the  torture  and  death 


THE  PERSECUTION  63 

of  her  six  boys,  still  exhorted  the  seventh  to  be 
loyal  to  his  God,  making  this  brave,  but  pathetic 
plea.  "O,  my  son,  have  pity  upon  me  that  bare 
thee  and  nourished  thee  and  brought  thee 
up  unto  this  age  and  endured  the  troubles 
of  education.  I  beseech  thee,  my  son, 
look  upon  the  heaven  and  earth  and  all  that 
is  therein  and  consider  that  God  made  them  of 
things  that  were  not  and  so  was  mankind  made 
likewise.  Fear  not  this  tormentor  but,  being  wor- 
thy of  thy  brethren,  take  thy  death,  that  I  may 
receive  thee  again  in  mercy  with  thy  brethren." 
The  young  man  met  his  death  in  a  manner  be- 
fitting the  son  of  such  a  mother,  and  she  herself 
last  of  all  received  a  martyr's  crown.* 

At  last  the  long  pent-up  grief  and  rage  of  the 
Jewish  people  burst  forth  with  a  volcanic  strength. 
A  venerable  priest,  Mattathias  of  the  house  of 
Asmon,  who  with  his  five  stalwart  sons  had  taken 
refuge  from  the  terrors  of  the  persecution  in  his 
ancestral  town  of  Modin,  was  the  first  to  rebel. 
When  commanded  to  take  part  in  the  monthly 
sacrifice  ordered  by  the  king,  he  replied  with 
spirit:  "Though  all  the  nations  that  are  under  the 
king's  domain  obey  and  fall  away  everyone  from 
the  religion  of  their  fathers  and  give  consent  to 

*The  book  of  Daniel,  in  the  opinion  of  modern  scholars,  was 
written  during  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  to  encourage 
the  Jews  to  remain  constant  to  their  religion  throughout  the 
horrors  of  the  persecution. 


64  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

his  commandments,  yet  will  I  and  my  sons  and 
my  brethren  walk  in  the  covenant  of  our  fathers. 
We  will  not  hearken  to  the  king's  words  to  go 
from  our  religion  either  on  the  right  hand  or  the 
left." 

A  disloyal  Jew  came  forward  to  obey  the  re- 
quest of  the  king's  commissioner.  At  the  sight, 
Mattathias'  anger  blazed.  He  fell  upon  the 
traitor  and  killed  him;  then  slaying  the  king's 
officer  and  overturning  the  heathen  altar,  he  fled 
with  his  sons  to  the  mountains  crying,  "Who- 
soever is  zealous  of  the  law  and  maintaineth  the 
covenant,  let  him  follow  me."  There  with  a 
constantly  increasing  band  of  followers,  they  lived 
in  a  state  of  open  rebellion,  observing  their  re- 
ligious customs  and  making  raids  into  the  sur- 
rounding country,  destroying  Greek  altars  and 
circumcising  uncircumcised  children.  The  lime- 
stone caves  of  the  desert  furnished  them  shelter, 
and  roots  and  herbs  a  scanty  subsistence. 

When  a  band  of  Jewish  fugitives  was  attacked 
by  the  Syrians  and  a  thousand  were  slain  because 
they  would  not  fight  on  the  Sabbath,  Mattathias 
with  impatient  scorn  for  such  short-sighted  main- 
tenance of  the  letter  of  the  law,  decided  for  him- 
self and  his  followers,  "Whosoever  shall  come  to 
make  battle  with  us  on  the  Sabbath  day,  we  will 
fight  against  him;  neither  will  we  die  all  as  our 


THE  PERSECUTION  65 

brethren  that  were  murdered  in  the  secret 
places." 

The  great  effort  of  rallying  his  down-trodden 
countrymen  was  a  severe  strain  on  the  failing 
strength  of  Mattathias,  who  was  now  a  very  old 
man.  He  survived  the  hardships  of  life  in  the 
wilderness  only  a  year,  and  died,  committing  the 
cause  for  which  he  had  struggled  bravely  to  the 
five  sons  who  gathered  about  him  to  receive  his 
blessing.  With  his  last  breath,  he  exhorted 
them  to  fight  for  the  law  and  avenge  their  coun- 
try's wrongs,  desiring  for  them  no  greater  honor 
than  the  service  and  favor  of  God  which  had 
ever  been  the  reward  of  the  heroes  of  his  race. 
He  bade  them  make  Simon  their  counsellor, 
and  Judas,  who  was  brave  and  strong,  their 
leader  in  battle. 

The  body  of  the  aged  priest  was  borne  to  the 
ancestral  tomb  at  Modin  where  it  was  interred 
amidst  the  lamentations  of  all  Israel. 


CHAPTER  V 

JUDAS     MACCABEUS 

Judas  Maccabeus  cheerfully  accepted  the  for- 
lorn bequest  of  his  aged  father.  Like  a  young 
lion,  he  fought  the  enemies  of  his  religion  and  with 
gracious  chivalry,  he  guarded  the  weak  and  timid 
of  his  race.  In  the  four  records  of  his  prowess 
which  have  been  handed  down  to  us,  the  bright- 
ness of  his  fame  is  untarnished  by  mention  of  one 
dishonorable  or  disloyal  deed.  He  stands  pre- 
eminent among  the  heroes  of  his  race  for  patriot- 
ism, courage,  undaunted  faith  in  God,  and  un- 
sullied purity  of  character,  fighting  always  against 
tremendous  odds,  not  for  glory  or  renown,  but 
for  the  favor  of  God  and  the  religious  liberty  of 
his  race.  The  following  quotation  from  a 
modern  English  poet  might  well  be  applied  to  this 
warrior  of  ancient  Israel. 

One  who  never  turned  his  back 
But  fought,  breast  forward; 
Never  doubted  clouds  would  break 
Never  dreamed  though  right  were  worsted 
Wrong  would   triumph. 
66 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  67 

In  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  his  age,  he 
was  a  faithful  friend,  but  a  relentless  enemy,  ob- 
serving to  the  last  letter  the  rough  edict  of  the 
Jewish  law,  "An  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a 
tooth."  The  successive  and  vigorous  blows 
which  he  dealt  the  Syrians  are  suggested  by  his 
surname  Maccabeus,  the  Hammer,  which  became 
later  the  name  by  which  his  entire  family  was 
best  known. 

When  the  constant  raids  with  which  Judas, 
like  his  father,  harassed  the  Greeks,  killing  the 
ungodly  and  burning  their  houses,  grew  too 
troublesome  to  be  longer  ignored,  Apollonius, 
the  governor  of  Samaria,  marched  against  him 
with  an  army.  He  was  met,  apparently  near 
Samaria,  by  Judas  who  slew  him  and  with  his 
handful  of  men,  put  the  Samaritan  army  to  flight. 
A  trophy  of  his  first  victory,  the  captured  sword 
of  Apollonius  with  its  jewelled  hilt  and  blade  of 
tempered  Damascus  steel,  became  the  weapon 
with  which  the  Jewish  hero  ever  afterwards 
fought  his  battles  for  righteousness. 

During  the  same  year,  Seron,  the  commander 
of  the  Syrian  forces  in  Palestine,  attacked  this 
young  lion  of  the  desert.  The  little  band  of 
faithful  Jews,  who  had  been  all  day  without  food, 
grew  faint-hearted  and  despondent  when  they 
saw  the  large  number  and  superior  equipment  of 
their  opponents,  but  they  were  so  re-animated  by 


68  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

the  faith  of  their  brave  young  commander,  who 
assured  them  that  with  the  God  of  heaven,  it  was 
all  one  to  deliver  with  a  great  multitude  or  a 
small  company,  that  again  they  carried  all  before 
them,  and  Seron  and  his  army  fled  in  disorder, 
to  the  land  of  the  Philistines. 

All  Palestine  rang  with  reports  of  Judas'  valor, 
and  the  Syrians  began  to  realize  that  the  Jewish 
insurrection  was  not  a  trivial  affair  to  be  lightly 
brushed  aside.  The  angry  king  resolved  to  ex- 
terminate utterly  this  despised  race  which  he  had 
been  unable  either  to  bribe  or  to  torture  into  sub- 
mission. He  was  himself  obliged,  on  account 
of  his  pressing  need  of  money,  to  go  into 
[Persia  to  collect  tribute,  but  he  left  half  his  army 
with  Lysias,  a  Syrian  of  high  rank,  whom  he 
commanded  to  uproot  and  destroy  all  the  Jews, 
to  remove  every  vestige  of  Jewish  occupation 
from  Palestine,  and  to  divide  the  lands  of  the 
Jews  among  aliens.  Lysias  gathered  a  large 
army,  40,000  footmen  and  70,000  horsemen,  if 
we  may  trust  the  somewhat  questionable  enumer- 
ation of  First  Maccabees,  and  sent  it  into  Judea 
under  the  command  of  three  noted  Syrian 
generals,  Ptolemy,  Gorgias  and  Nicanor.  So 
certain  did  the  victory  of  the  Syrian  troops  seem 
that  they  were  followed  by  slave-dealers  who  had 
bargained  with  the  Syrian  leaders  to  exchange  the 
large  sums  of  gold  and  silver  which  they  carried 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  69 

for  captive  Jews.  The  price  had  actually  been 
agreed  upon  and  the  money  thus  obtained  was  to 
enrich  the  impoverished  Syrian  treasury. 

The  Jews  also  made  preparations  for  their 
desperate  struggle  for  existence.  Upon  the 
heights  of  Mizpeh  whence  they  could  look  down 
upon  the  forsaken  streets  of  Jerusalem,  the  des- 
ecrated and  insulted  temple,  and  the  menacing 
Syrian  garrison,  Judas  assembled  and  organized 
his  little  force  of  three  thousand  men.  In  sack- 
cloth and  ashes,  they  prayed  and  fasted,  spreading 
out  before  themselves  the  cherished  sacred  em- 
blems which  they  could  no  longer  use,  the  scrolls 
defaced  by  the  Greeks  with  heathen  images,  the 
first  fruits,  the  tithes,  and  the  garments  of  the 
priests.  They  were  so  filled  with  holy  zeal  and 
burning  indignation  by  this  sad  retrospection  that 
Judas  voiced  the  mind  of  all  when  he  declared 
that  it  was  far  better  for  them  to  die  in  battle 
than  to  behold  the  calamities  of  their  people  and 
their  sanctuary.  He  divided  his  army  into 
companies  commanded  by  his  four  brothers,  and 
leaving  only  the  timid  and  preoccupied  behind* 
they  marched  down  to  encamp  among  the  hills  at 
the  south  of  Emmaus.  An  attempt  to  surprise 
and  destroy  the  Jewish  army  was  made  by  five 
thousand  Syrians  under  Gorgias;  but  Judas,  who 
had  been  informed  of  their  intention,  quickly  and 

*I  Maccabees  III,  56. 


70  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

silently  changed  his  position;  and  the  Syrian  gen- 
eral finding  the  Jewish  camp  deserted,  spent  the 
night  and  a  part  of  the  next  day  in  a  fruitless 
search  among  the  mountains  for  the  rebels  whom 
he  supposed  had  fled  in  fright.  This  division  of 
the  Syrian  army  was  favorable  to  Judas'  ill-armed 
and  scanty  troops,  and  they  immediately  pre- 
pared to  surprise  the  Syrian  camp.  After  a 
stirring  speech,  in  which  their  leader  recalled  the 
marvellous  deliverances  of  the  past,  the  trumpets 
sounded  and  the  Jewish  army  fell  upon  the 
startled  Syrians  with  such  fury  that  again  the 
result  was  a  complete  victory  for  the  Jews.  Three 
thousand  Syrians  were  killed,  and  the  living  pur- 
sued to  the  plains  of  Gazera,  Idumea,  Azotus 
and  Jamnia. 

But  the  second  division  of  the  Syrian  army 
must  be  reckoned  with  before  the  Jews  could 
safely  secure  the  tempting  plunder  of  the  Syrian 
camp.  When  Gorgias  and  his  men  returned 
from  their  futile  search,  they  found  their  tents  in 
flames,  and  the  Jews  drawn  up  before  them  in 
battle-array.  Always  superstitious,  they  were 
filled  with  an  unreasoning  terror  of  this  Jewish 
warrior  who  with  his  army  seemed  to  bear  a 
charmed  existence,  and  like  a  herd  of  deer  at  the 
sight  of  the  hunter,  they  fled  without  raising  a 
weapon  in  self-defense.  The  victors  returned 
homeward  that  night  praising  God  in  songs  of 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  71 

thanksgiving,  their  dingy  and  ill-clad  ranks 
brightened  by  the  blue  silk,  the  costly  Tyrian 
purple,  the  shining  shields  and  weapons  of  the 
Syrian  camp,  their  hearts  made  glad  by  the  pos- 
session of  the  gold  and  silver  which  was  to  have 
been  the  price  of  their  freedom. 

A  fourth  victory  won  by  Judas  in  an  unequal 
conflict  at  Bethsura  with  Lysias  himself  so  dis- 
comfited the  Syrian  leader  that  he  withdrew  to 
Antioch  to  collect  a  larger  army;  and  the  road 
which  led  to  the  goal  of  Jewish  desire,  Jerusalem 
and  the  deserted  temple,  lay  open  before  the 
Jewish  army.  Led  by  Judas,  they  hastened 
thither,  and  their  frantic  grief  at  the  sight  of  the 
overgrown  courts  and  profaned  altar  of  the 
sanctuary,  whose  well-kept  precincts  had  hitherto 
been  their  pride,  soon  gave  way  to  the  quiet  joy 
of  the  restoration.  Priests  of  blameless  life 
were  chosen  to  remove  everything  which  had 
been  polluted  by  contact  with  the  unclean  animals : 
the  heathen  altars  and  pagan  statues  were  ban- 
ished and  the  whole  temple  was  thoroughly 
purged  and  renovated,  while  Judas  and  his  sol- 
diers held  the  Syrian  garrison  at  bay. 

A  curious  instance  of  the  punctiliousness  which 
characterized  the  period  was  the  attitude  of  the 
puzzled  priests  toward  the  original  altar  of 
burnt  sacrifice.  After  much  consultation,  it  was 
decided  that  the  stones  which  had  been  solemnly 


72  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

consecrated,  could  not  have  been  rendered  wholly 
unclean  by  the  recent  pollution,  and  they  were 
carefully  laid  away  in  an  obscure  corner  of  the 
temple  until  some  prophet  should  come  to  impart 
to  future  generations  the  true  secret  of  their 
proper  disposal. 

The  burned  gates  and  broken  partitions  were 
rebuilt,  and  a  new  table,  altar  of  incense,  and  iron 
candlestick  encased  in  wood,  replaced  the  costly 
furniture  which  had  been  carried  away  by 
Antiochus.  Exactly  three  years  from  that 
twenty-fifth  of  December  when  heathen  sacri- 
fices had  first  been  offered  in  the  Jewish  temple 
by  the  king's  commissioner,  the  front  of  the  tem- 
ple was  decked  with  the  crowns  and  shields  of 
gold  which  had  been  taken  from  the  Syrians,  the 
shew-bread  was  placed  upon  the  table,  the  incense 
set  smoking  on  the  altar,  and  most  significant  of 
all,  the  perpetual  light  which  symbolized  the 
eternal  radiance  of  the  Spirit  of  God  was  relighted 
upon  the  sacred  candlestick.  Thousands  of 
tapers  supplemented  the  flame  of  the  holy  candle- 
stick and  before  their  light,  for  eight  days,  the 
Jews  celebrated  the  feast  of  the  dedication, 
dancing  and  singing  to  the  sound  of  the  lute  and 
the  harp  or  marching  in  festive  procession 
bearing  the  branches  of  palms  and  of  evergreens. 
Costly  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving  were  offered  to 
God  and  the  reaction  which  succeeded  the  intense 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  73 

grief  of  three  years  of  hardship  and  persecution 
culminated  in  one  of  the  most  joyous  occasions 
of  Jewish  history.  The  Feast  of  Lights  or  the 
winter  Feast  of  Tabernacles  which  commemor- 
ated the  rededication  of  the  temple,  became  a 
regular  festival  of  the  Jewish  church,  and  is  still 
celebrated  annually  by  the  Jewish  people. 

Notwithstanding  the  brilliant  victories  of  the 
Jewish  army,  Judaism  was  still  surrounded  by 
enemies.  As  the  Syrian  garrison  on  the  Mount 
of  David  was  a  constant  menace  to  the  safety 
of  the  restored  temple,  the  temple  mount,  which 
later  became  one  of  the  strongest  garrisons  in 
the  world,  was  now  for  the  first  time  converted 
into  a  rival  stronghold  by  means  of  high  walls 
and  strong  towers.  Judas  also  established  an 
outpost  at  Bethzur  to  protect  the  southern 
approach  to  Jerusalem. 

The  Edomites  on  the  south,  the  Moabites  on 
the  east,  and  the  Greek  colonies  on  the  north  and 
west  of  Judea,  all  of  whom  had  joined  the  Syrians 
in  their  attempt  to  uproot  Judaism  and  restore 
idol-worship,  now  manifested  a  jealous  hatred 
of  their  victorious  enemies  by  a  bitter  persecution 
of  the  Jewish  immigrants  who  lived  in  their  ter- 
ritories. In  response  to  the  pleas  for  relief 
from  persecution  which  came  to  him  from  all 
directions,  Judas  divided  his  army,  which  now 
numbered  eleven  thousand  men,  between  himself 


74  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

and  his  brother  Simon,  and  they  went  forth,  Simon 
into  Galilee  and  Judas  and  his  younger  brother 
Jonathan  into  Edom,  Gilead,  and  Samaria. 
Everywhere  they  were  successful,  overpowering 
the  idolaters,  and  bringing  back  with  them  to 
Jerusalem  faithful  Jews  with  their  wives  and 
children. 

In  B.  c.  164,  while  Judas  was  subduing  the 
heathen  nations  of  Palestine,  Judaism  was  freed 
from  its  most  vindictive  enemy,  for  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  returning  from  an  unsuccessful  cam- 
paign in  Persia,  died  of  a  loathsome  and  incurable 
disease.  Jewish  annals  abound  in  legendary 
accounts  of  the  humiliation  and  death-bed  repent- 
ance of  this  eccentric  monarch,  but  these  traditions 
are  so  warped  by  Jewish  prejudice  that  they 
cannot  be  considered  authentic. 

The  regency  of  the  realm  and  the  guardianship 
of  the  ten-year-old  Antiochus  Eupator  were 
immediately  seized  by  Lysias,  although  they  had 
been  bequeathed  by  the  deceased  king  to  his 
friend  Philip;  and  the  preoccupation  of  the 
Syrian  magnates  in  their  rivalry  might  have 
afforded  Judea  a  long  period  of  peace  if  Judas, 
no  longer  able  to  bear  the  irritating  proximity  of 
the  Syrian  garrison  in  Jerusalem,  had  not  vigor- 
ously beseiged  this  obstacle  in  the  path  to  Jewish 
freedom  with  batterings  rams  and  engines.  In 
spite  of  his  vigilance,  several  of  the  beseiged 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  75 

Syrians,  with  certain  Jewish  sympathizers, 
escaped  to  Antioch  and  informed  Lysias  that 
matters  in  Judea  would  soon  be  beyond  his  con- 
trol unless  the  power  of  Judas  was  speedily  cur- 
tailed. Lysias'  answer  was  a  visit  to  Judea  with 
the  young  king  and  an  enormous  army.  He 
approached  Jerusalem  from  the  south,  attacking 
Bethzur  so  successfully  that  Judas  was  obliged 
to  march  from  Jerusalem  to  the  relief  of  the  be- 
sieged fortress.  The  two  armies  met  at  Beth- 
zacharias.  A  military  custom  peculiar  to  the 
century  was  the  use  of  elephants  in  battle,  a  prec- 
edent established  by  Alexander  the  Great  him- 
self. The  great  beasts  about  which  the  Syrian 
forces  were  grouped,  carried  upon  their  backs 
strong  wooden  towers  each  occupied  by  ten  or 
twelve  Syrians  of  high  rank.  "And  to  the  end 
that  they  might  provoke  the  elephants  to  fight, 
they  showed  them  the  blood  of  grapes  and  mul- 
berries." 

The  angry  elephants  with  their  tall  howdahs 
and  dark  Indian  drivers,  the  hooked  battle  char- 
iots, the  glistening  spears  and  rattling  armor  of  a 
hundred  thousand  Syrian  soldiers  spread  over  the 
hills  and  valleys  south  of  Jerusalem  in  imposing 
and  terrifying  array.  "Now  when  the  sun  shone 
upon  the  shields  of  gold  and  of  brass,  the  moun- 
tains glistered  therewith  and  shone  like  lamps  of 
fire.  Wherefore  all  that  heard  the  voice  of  the 


76  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

multitude  and  the  marching  of  the  company  and 
the  rattling  of  the  arms  were  moved;  for  the 
army  was  very  great  and  mighty."  Nevertheless 
the  Jews  went  boldly  forth  to  meet  this  army 
which  was  ten  times  as  great  as  their  own  and 
again  distinguished  themselves  by  remarkable 
acts  of  bravery.  Eleazer,  the  fourth  brother 
of  Judas,  performed  the  almost  impossible  feat 
of  cutting  his  way  through  the  Syrian  ranks  to 
the  elephant  upon  which,  from  the  great  height 
of  its  wooden  tower,  he  supposed  the  young  king 
to  be  seated.  He  crept  beneath  the  huge  beast 
and  killed  it  by  an  upward  stroke  of  his  sword, 
but  was  himself  crushed  and  killed  beneath  the 
weight  of  the  falling  animal,  thereby  earning  the 
title  of  Avaran  or  Beast-sticker,  by  which  he  was 
ever  afterward  remembered. 

In  spite  of  the  valor  of  his  soldiers,  it  was 
soon  evident  that  against  such  overpowering 
numbers,  Judas  must  meet  with  his  first  defeat, 
and  although  the  fact  is  only  hinted  at  in  First 
Maccabees  and  is  openly  denied  in  Second  Mac- 
cabees, the  Jewish  army  was  completely  routed, 
driven  back  into  the  temple  fortress  and  there 
besieged.  Owing  to  the  rest  of  the  Sabbatical 
year,  there  was  a  scarcity  of  food  in  the  besieged 
city,  and  the  Jews  soon  reached  the  point  where 
they  must  choose-  one  of  two  alternatives,  star- 
vation or  surrender.  At  this  juncture,  Lysias 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  77 

was  informed  by  messengers  from  Antioch  that 
the  regency  had  been  usurped  by  his  rival 
Philip.  He  was  therefore  obliged  to  bring  his 
war  with  the  Jews  to  a  hasty  conclusion.  Mene- 
laus  was  beheaded  as  the  prime  mover  in  the 
whole  vexatious  affair,  and  a  treaty  in  which 
the  Jews  were  promised  freedom  to  observe  the 
laws  of  their  ancestors  ended  the  conflict  for 
religious  liberty.  By  a  strange  incongruity  of 
fate,  the  achievement  for  which  they  had  fought 
and  struggled  was  consummated,  not  by  one  of 
their  brilliant  victories,  but  by  their  first  defeat. 
There  was  no  further  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
Syrians  to  uproot  and  destroy  Jewish  institutions, 
and  the  "godly"  were  many  of  them  satisfied  to 
let  matters  rest  there. 

But  Judas  and  his  followers  could  feel  little 
confidence  in  a  treaty  of  peace  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  razing  of  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  to 
the  ground  and  the  retention  of  the  Syrian  gar- 
risons in  Bethzur  and  Jerusalem.  They  had  be- 
sides little  appetite  for  subordination  to  Alcimus, 
a  descendant  of  the  house  of  Aaron  who  was 
leader  of  the  Hellenists,  and  wished  to  become 
high  priest.  Constant  friction  occurred  between 
the  two  parties  in  Jerusalem. 

Lysias,  upon  his  return  to  Antioch,  had  con- 
quered Philip,  but  had  been  in  turn  conquered  by 
a  new  claimant  of  the  Syrian  throne,  Demetrius, 


78  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

who  beheaded  the  chancellor  and  the  young  king 
and  took  possession  of  the  sovereignty.  To 
the  new  king  Demetrius,  Alcimus  made  an  appeal 
for  aid,  sending  him  costly  gifts  and  the  message 
that  Judas  was  constantly  inciting  the  Jews  to  re- 
bellion and  that  there  could  be  no  peace  in  the 
land  while  he  lived.  Nicanor,  an  experienced 
Syrian  general,  was  accordingly  sent  with  an 
army  into  Judea  to  subdue  the  Jews,  kill  Judas, 
and  establish  Alcimus  as  high  priest. 

A  picturesque  touch  is  added  to  the  conflict 
between  Judas  and  Nicanor  by  the  tradition  that 
the  rough  Syrian  general,  since  his  first  encounter 
with  Judas  at  Emmaus,  had  entertained  a  lively 
admiration  for  the  Jewish  warrior,  and  upon 
meeting  him  face  to  face  in  Jerusalem  had  yielded 
completely  to  the  charm  of  his  impressive  and 
high-minded  personality.  "He  would  not  will- 
ingly have  Judas  out  of  his  sight,  for  he  loved 
the  man  from  his  heart.  He  prayed  him  also  to 
take  a  wife  and  beget  children."  The  account 
leads  us  to  believe  that  the  attraction  was  mutual, 
that  Judas  acted  upon  the  advice  of  the  Syrian 
general,  and  that  for  a  year  and  a  half,  the  two 
commanders  lived  in  peace  at  Jerusalem,  meeting 
daily,  each  enjoying  the  friendship  of  the  other. 
Then  Alcimus,  in  a  message  to  Demetrius,  de- 
nounced Nicanor  as  a  traitor  who  plotted  to 
make  Judas  ruler  of  Syria.  Nicanor's  friendship 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  79 

would  not  stand  the  strain  of  possible  disaster  to 
himself.  Still  he  was  reluctant  to  betray  his 
comrade.  When  he  received  the  royal  edict 
which  commanded  him  to  send  the  Jewish  com- 
mander as  a  prisoner  to  Antioch,  he  became  so 
churlish  and  ill-tempered  that  Judas,  anticipat- 
ing evil,  withdrew  with  his  men  from  Jerusalem. 

In  the  search  which  followed  Nicanor  ap- 
peared before  the  temple  court  ordering  the 
frightened  priests  to  deliver  Judas  into  his  hands 
without  delay.  They  swore  they  did  not  know 
the  whereabouts  of  the  man  he  sought,  and  tried 
in  vain  to  appease  his  wrath  by  pointing  out  the 
sacrifice  in  honor  of  King  Demetrius,  which 
smoked  upon  the  temple  altar.  By  his  irrever- 
ent mockery  and  blasphemous  reply,  the  name  of 
Nicanor  was  indelibly  written  upon  Jewish 
memory  long  after  the  names  of  the'  other 
heathen  leaders  in  the  Maccabean  struggle  had 
become  faded  and  indistinct.  "He  stretched  out 
his  right  hand  toward  the  temple  and  made  an 
oath  in  this  manner: —  'If  ye  will  not  deliver 
me  Judas  as  a  prisoner,  I  will  lay  this  temple  of 
God  even  with  the  ground,  and  I  will  break  down 
the  altar,  and  erect  a  notable  temple  unto 
Bacchus." 

All  the  latent  courage  of  the  Jews  was  aroused 
by  the  threatened  destruction  of  their  cherished 
temple,  of  whose  blessing  they  had  recently 


80  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

been  deprived  and  for  whose  restoration  Jewish 
blood  had  been  freely  shed. 

After  a  preliminary  skirmish  at  Capharsalama, 
the  rival  forces  met  at  Bethhoron  where  Judas 
had  already  gained  one  great  victory  and  was 
now  to  gain  his  last. 

With  the  same  cheerful  confidence  and  faith  in 
God  whidi  characterized  his  entire  career,  he  en- 
couraged his  men  to  meet  that  imposing  array  of 
angry  elephants,  glittering  swords,  and  well- 
trained  soldiers  which  had  proved  disastrous  to 
the  Jews  on  the  field  of  Bethzacharias.  The 
Syrians  entered  the  battle  with  trumpet  and  song, 
the  Israelites  with  invocation  and  prayer. 
"Fighting  with  their  hands  and  praying  with 
their  hearts,"  they  encountered  the  great  Syrian 
army,  and  their  efforts  were  crowned  with  a  vic- 
tory in  which  the  hand  of  God  was  plainly  visible. 
Nicanor  was  one  of  the  first  to  fall  and  the  loss 
of  the  Syrian  commander  occasioned  the  wild  con- 
fusion in  which  his  army  fled.  His  dead  body  in 
its  magnificant  armor  was  carried  with  other 
spoil  to  Jerusalem,  and  the  hand  which  had  been 
raised  insolently  against  the  house  of  God  was 
suspended  over  one  of  its  gates.  This  entrance  to 
the  temple  bore  till  the  date  of  its  destruction  the 
name  Nicanor's  gate,  and  the  day  on  which  the 
victory  took  place  was  celebrated  annually  by  the 
Jews  as  Nicanor's  day. 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  81 

After  the  defeat  of  Nicanor,  Judas  stood  at 
the  head  of  the  Jewish  nation.  He  had  become 
convinced  that  no  dependence  could  be  placed 
upon  the  promises  of  the  Syrian  authorities,  and 
that  the  religious  freedom  of  Israel  would  never 
be  out  of  danger  until  it  was  guarded  by  an  in- 
dependent Jewish  government. 

Since  her  conflict  with  Antiochus  the  Great, 
Rome  had  watched  the  affairs  of  Syria  with  un- 
ceasing vigilance,  constantly  interfering  with  her 
colonial  policy,  ever  ready  to  cripple  her  growing 
power.  Reports  of  Rome's  justice,  her  fidelity, 
her  simplicity  of  life,  her  prowess  in  battle,  and 
her  wonderful  military  conquests  had  reached 
Judas  through  his  contact  with  the  Syrians.  He 
resolved  to  throw  himself  upon  the  mercy  of 
Rome,  and  to  beg  her  cooperation  in  making  his 
nation  politically  independent,  a  project  he  dared 
not  undertake  alone.  Ambassadors  were  sent  by 
him  to  Rome  to  arrange  an  alliance,  but  they  re- 
turned from  their  long  journey  too  late. 

Two  months  after  the  battle  of  Bethhoron, 
Demetrius  sent  a  vast  army  into  Judea  to  avenge 
the  defeat  and  death  of  Nicanor;  and  for  some 
reason,  possibly  because  of  a  sag  in  popular  en- 
thusiasm, the  reaction  which  might  follow  a  great 
victory,  more  probably  because  his  broader  policy 
had  antagonized  the  bigoted,  Judas  was  unable  to 
rally  his  scattered  troops.  Only  eight  hundred 


82  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

men  gathered  to  oppose  the  great  Syrian  army, 
and  defeat  seemed  so  certain  that  Judas  was 
begged  by  his  friends  to  seek  safety  in  flight. 
"If  our  time  be  come,  let  us  die  manfully  for  our 
brethren,  and  let  us  not  stain  our  honor,"  was  his 
reply.  He  fought  with  his  usual  lion-like 
bravery,  but  was  caught  between  the  two  wings 
of  the  Syrian  army  and  fell.  The  body  of  this 
last  great  hero  of  the  Jewish  race  was  recovered 
by  his  two  brothers,  Simon  and  Jonathan,  and  was 
interred  beside  that  of  his  father  at  Modin. 
The  dirge  which  had  been  sung  for  David  and 
Saul  went  up  from  all  Judea,  "How  is  the  valiant 
man  fallen,  the  savior  of  Israel." 

The  six  years  which  comprised  the  public  career 
of  Judas  Maccabeus  were  crowded  with  acts  of 
public  service.  He  breathed  into  the  hearts  of 
his  oppressed  countrymen  the  reanimating  spirit 
of  his  own  courage  and  faith  in  God;  he  trans- 
formed a  race  of  servile  subordinates  into  a 
nation  of  brave  and  heroic  soldiers;  he  delivered 
his  country  from  the  heathen  oppressor,  estab- 
lished its  religious  liberty  and  sowed  the  seed 
from  which  soon  after  his  death,  political  in- 
dependence was  to  spring.  He  destroyed  with 
the  sword  the  tangible  debasing  evidences  of 
Hellenism,  but  was  unable  either  to  destroy  or 
escape  its  subtle  contagion. 

The  martyrs   of  the    Maccabean  persecution 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  83 

who  willingly  gave  their  lives  to  resist  the  en- 
croachments of  Greek  influence,  uttered  with 
their  last  breath  a  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality which  Hellenism  had  established  in 
Judea,  and  an  incident  related  in  Second  Macca- 
bees leads  us  to  believe  that  the  gloomy  doubts 
of  Jesus,  the  son  of  Sirach,  in  regard  to  the  future 
life  found  no  resting-place  in  the  optimistic  mind 
of  Judas  Maccabeus.  When  the  Jewish  hero, 
after  a  skirmish  with  the  Syrians,  returned  to  the 
battlefield  to  perform  the  last  melancholy  service 
for  the  dead,  he  found  beneath  the  coat  of  each 
fallen  comrade  a  small  Philistine  idol  which  had 
been  worn  as  a  talisman  against  disaster.  The 
heart  of  Judas  was  saddened  by  the  fear  that 
this  "flicker  of  idolatry"  might  deprive  his  be- 
loved soldiers  of  the  eternal  bliss  of  a  future  ex- 
istence. With  his  living  companions,  he  prayed 
earnestly  that  their  sin  might  not  be  remembered 
by  God,  and  also  collected  a  generous  sum  in 
silver  coins,  which  he  sent  as  an  offering  to  Jeru- 
salem to  efface  the  memory  of  the  idolatrous 
superstition  and  to  insure  the  future  happiness  of 
these  misguided  souls. 

Everything  indicates  that  the  entire  life  and 
policy  of  Judas  combined  the  nobler  elements  of 
both  Judaism  and  Hellenism,  and  that  he  stood 
above  that  inescapable  prison,  the  rut  of  legalism, 
which  the  stream  of  Pharisaic  life,  by  its  very  ac- 


84  THE  GREEK  PERIOD 

tivity,  was  constantly  wearing  deeper  and 
narrower.  The  fact  that  he  chose  the  more 
open-minded  of  his  countrymen  to  perform  im- 
portant missions  could  not  fail  to  irritate  the 
pious,  and  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  his  memory 
is  ignored  in  the  traditions  of  the  Talmudic 
schools.  His  name  does  not  occur  once  in  the 
Mishna  nor  in  the  yearly  thanksgiving  which 
commemorates  the  deliverance  from  Antiochus. 
But  if  he  was  unappreciated  by  the  religious 
leaders  of  his  race,  the  adoration  of  the  people 
was  his,  and  posterity  has  given  his  name  a  high 
place  among  the  military  heroes  of  the  world. 

"Spirit  exalted!     Above  the  armies  of  men  in  battle  it 

hovers,  valorous,  undefiled; 
There,  on  the  field  of  carnage  and  death,  stand  forth  the 

highest  instincts  of  the  soul ; 
There  find  ye  courage,   strength,   nobility,   ungrudging 

service ; 
There  find  ye  infinite  tenderness  and  compassion,   the 

generosity  of  worthy  foemen; 
Just  as,  in  the  presence  and  hour  of  death,  in  the  pain 

and   sorrow,    in   the   sharp    arraignment,    the   veil 

harshly  rent  asunder, 
Man  sees  life's  truth  and  falsehood,  the  spirit,  love,  and 

what  it  is  really  for; 
So,  in  the  hour  of  war,  nations  awake  and  clear  their 

eyes. 
Just  as,  out  of  trial,  grief,  adversity,  sore  loss,  has  come 

man's  best  endeavor; 


JUDAS  MACCABEUS  85 

So,  out  of  the  world's  distress,  has  come  its  highest 

dream. 
And  here  and  there,  on  the  crest  of  the  years,  one  has 

appeared 

Sending  his  soul  up  like  a  sheet  of  flame, 
Lighting  the  sky  with  terrible  glad  truth,  blinding  the 

world, 
To  show  what  man  can  be." 


PART  III 
THE  ROMAN  PERIOD.  160  B.  c.— 70  A.  D. 


ft  £  ft  00  S  THEATER 


JERUSALEM  IN  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 


1.  The  Temple  n. 

2.  Castle  of  Antonia  12. 

3.  Herod's  Castle  13. 

4.  Hippicus  Tower  14. 

5.  Mariamne  Tower  15. 

6.  Phasael  Tower  16. 

7.  Palace  of  Helena  17. 

8.  The  A  era  18. 

9.  Palace  of  Asmone-  10. 

ans  20. 

10.  Council  House 


Golden  Gate 
Gate  of  Shushan 
Water  Gate 
Gate  of  the  Essenes 
Pottery  Gate 
Valley  Gate 
Gate   of  Ephraim 
Old  or  First  Gate 
Gymnasium 
House  of  Caiaphas 


CHAPTER  VI 

JUDEA  AN  INDEPENDENT  KINGDOM  UNDER 
THE  ASMONEAN  MONARCHS 

The  ambassadors  sent  by  Judas  to  Rome  did 
not  return  until  the  hopes  of  the  Maccabean 
party  had  been  temporarily  eclipsed  by  the  de- 
feat and  death  of  their  brave  commander,  but 
the  result  of  their  long  journey,  a  treaty  which 
promised  the  aid  and  protection  of  Rome,  was 
most  significant  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
people.  The  bond  which  was  to  deliver  them 
from  the  despotism  of  Syria  became  a  century 
later  the  fetter  by  which  they  were  held  in  help- 
less dependence  at  the  feet  of  Rome  and  "from 
henceforth,  for  good  or  evil,  the  fortunes  of  the 
Jewish  State  were  inextricably  bound  up  with 
those  of  its  gigantic  ally — at  first  on  terms  of 
friendly  equality,  soon  of  complete  dependence, 
then  of  violent  conflict,  finally  of  the  most  pro- 
found spiritual  relations — each  borrowing  from 
each  the  peculiar  polity,  teaching,  superstitions, 
vices  and  virtues  of  the  other"  and  it  was  beneath 
the  watchful  surveillance  of  Rome  that  the  events 

89 


90  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

which  followed  the  disastrous  defeat  at  Eleasa 
took  place. 

The  reins  of  government  which  had  fallen  from 
the  hands  of  Judas  were  taken  up  by  the  Hellen- 
ist high  priest,  the  hated  Alcimus,  and  the  army 
of  Bacchides  over-ran  Judea.  For  a  time  it 
seemed  as  if  the  dark  days  of  the  persecution 
were  to  return.  The  righteous  were  hunted 
down  and  killed  in  such  numbers  that  the  sur- 
vivors, like  their  noble  fathers,  were  obliged  to 
seek  refuge  in  the  desert  But  the  years  of  val- 
iant military  service  through  which  Israel  had 
just  passed  did  not  prove  fruitless.  With  Jona- 
than, the  younger  brother  of  Judas,  as  their 
leader,  they  displayed  such  skill  in  guerilla  war- 
fare that  Bacchides  could  gain  no  permanent  ad- 
vantage, and  was  obliged  to  content  himself  with 
placing  Syrian  garrisons  in  the  principal  cities  of 
Judea  and  taking  the  children  of  prominent 
Jewish  families  as  hostages  to  Jerusalem. 

Two  years  later,  Alcimus  intensified  the  al- 
ready active  hatred  of  all  orthodox  Israelites  by 
breaking  down  the  partition  which  excluded  Gen- 
tiles from  the  inner  court  of  the  temple;  and  a 
stroke  of  apoplexy  in  which  his  enemies  beheld 
the  retribution  of  God  for  this  act  of  sacrilege, 
ended  his  career.  No  high  priest  was  appointed 
to  fill  the  vacant  place,  and  Bacchides  returned  to 
Antioch. 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  JUDEA  91 

Jonathan  evidently  took  advantage  of  the 
opportunity  afforded  by  this  clear  field,  for  in 
B.  c.  158,  the  Hellenists  alarmed  by  his  growing 
power,  recalled  Bacchides  to  Jerusalem.  As  the 
Syrian  general  was  no  match  for  Jonathan  and 
his  adherents,  he  executed  the  Hellenists  who  had 
sent  for  him,  made  a  peace  with  the  Hebrew 
leader  upon  his  own  terms,  and  left  Judea  never 
to  return. 

The  fog  of  obscurity  in  which  the  seven  suc- 
ceeding years  are  enveloped,  is  pierced  only  by 
the  light  of  one  brief,  but  significant  sentence 
found  in  First  Maccabees.  "Thus  the  sword 
ceased  from  Israel,  but  Jonathan  dwelt  at  Mich- 
mash  and  began  to  govern  the  people;  and  he 
destroyed  the  ungodly  men  out  of  Israel."  It  is 
apparent  that  the  following  of  Jonathan  con- 
stantly increased,  that  he  established  a  govern- 
ment at  Michmash,  and  that  although  the  Hellen- 
ists still  held  sway  in  Jerusalem,  he  became  in 
fact,  if  not  in  name,  the  ruler  of  Judea. 

Jonathan  was  the  politician  and  diplomat  of 
the  Maccabean  family.  Although  wholly  desti- 
tute of  the  lofty  ideals  and  moral  grandeur  of 
his  fallen  brother,  he  was  nevertheless  able  to 
perform  important  services  for  his  country  by 
his  adroit  use  of  Syria's  waning  power.  With 
dogged  persistence,  he  rose,  step  by  step,  some- 
times by  force,  sometimes  by  craft,  to  a  place  of 


92  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

commanding  influence  in  Judea,  lifting  his  nation 
with  him  to  a  position  of  almost  complete  inde- 
pendence. 

The  aim  of  the  Maccabean  party  was  no  longer 
religious  liberty.  It  was  the  ambition  of  Jona- 
than to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  Syria,  to  win 
political  freedom  for  his  country,  to  enlarge  its 
borders,  and  increase  its  strength.  Ten  years 
earlier,  his  hopes  would  have  been  futile,  but  now 
no  Syrian  king  felt  certain  of  his  throne;  Syria 
was  crippled  by  internal  strife,  and  the  well- 
trained  army  of  Jonathan  must  be  either  a  menace 
or  a  crutch.  Alexander  Balas,  the  pretended  son 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  disputed  the  claim  of 
Demetrius  to  the  throne.  A  similar  rivalry  was 
enacted  between  their  sons,  Antiochus  VI  and 
Demetrius  II.  All  four  were  eager  suppliants 
for  the-  friendship  and  aid  of  Jonathan.  The 
rounds  of  the  ladder  upon  which  the  wily  Israelite 
rose  to  eminence,  were  the  favors  with  which 
these  aspirants  for  the  Syrian  throne  purchased 
the  friendship  of  the  Jews.  From  Alexander 
Balas,  who  succeeded  with  his  help,  in  dislodging 
Demetrius  I,  he  obtained  the  title  "king's  friend," 
with  the  insignia  which  admitted  him  to  the  royal 
circle,  the  purple  and  the  diadem.  From  the 
same  hand,  he  received  the  office  of  high  priest, 
which  had  by  this  time  degenerated  into  an  alair 
so  purely  political  that  the  people  were  troubled 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  JUDEA  93 

by  no  sense  of  incongruity  when,  at  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles,  the  consecrated  garments  were 
hastily  assumed  by  Jonathan,  who,  almost  in  the 
same  breath,  "gathered  together  forces  and  pro- 
vided much  arms." 

By  the  winter  of  B.  c.  142-143,  Jonathan  had 
played  his  game  so  well  that  he  was  the  recognized 
ruler  of  Judea;  three  provinces  of  Samaria  had 
been  added  to  his  territory;  all  the  Syrian  garri- 
sons except  two,  one  at  Gazara  and  the  other  oc- 
cupying the  citadel  at  Jerusalem,  had  been  re- 
moved and  the  warrior  high  priest  and  his  brother 
Simon  were  loaded  with  honors  by  the  Syrian 
king,  Demetrius  II. 

The  envy  and  distrust  of  Trypho,  the  Syrian 
guardian  of  young  Antiochus  VI,  brought  the 
successful  life  of  Jonathan  to  a  violent  close. 
He  was  told  by  the  jealous  Syrian,  that  in  view  of 
their  close  friendship,  the  maintenance  of  so 
large  a  Jewish  army  was  quite  unnecessary. 
Jonathan  was  deceived  and  met  the  army  of 
Trypho  at  Ptolemais  with  a  force  of  only  a  thou- 
sand men.  His  soldiers  were  cut  down,  and  he 
himself  was  carried  away  under  cover  of  a  heavy 
snow-storm  to  the  obscure  village  east  of  the 
Jordan,  where  with  his  sons,  he  met  his  fate  at 
the  hands  of  an  assassin.  His  body  was  finally 
recovered  by  his  brother  Simon  and  carried  to 
Modin,  where  a  splendid  monument,  whose  seven 


94  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

stately  towers  might  be  seen  far  and  near,  from 
sea  and  land,  was  erected  above  the  last  resting- 
place  of  the  Maccabean  family. 

Simon  was  now  the  only  surviving  son  of 
Mattathias,  and  upon  his  shoulders  fell  the  man- 
tles of  the  diplomatic  Jonathan  and  of  the  nobler 
Judas  and  Mattathias.  Confusion  and  strife  were 
still  prevalent  in  Syria,  and  Simon  easily  obtained 
from  King  Demetrius  II,  who  was  hard-pressed 
by  his  rival  Trypho,  a  continuance  of  the  privileges 
bestowed  upon  Jonathan,  with  one  important  ad- 
dition, the  remission  of  all  outstanding  taxes  and 
the  promise  of  entire  freedom  from  tribute  for 
all  time  to  come.  By  throwing  off  this  last 
shackle  of  Syrian  despotism,  Judea  had  freed 
herself  from  the  yoke  of  the  Gentiles.  Only 
one  step  was  needed  to  complete  the  work  com- 
menced by  Jonathan,  the  removal  of  the  two 
remaining  Syrian  garrisons.  Gazara  was  cap- 
tured by  Simon,  and  his  son  John  Hyrcanus  was 
made  its  governor.  Finally,  on  the  23rd  of 
May,  B.  C.  142,  the  inmates  of  the  citadel  at 
Jerusalem  were  starved  into  submission  and  the 
fortress,  so  long  regarded  by  the  Jews  as  the 
"fiend  incarnate,"  the  "Satan  of  the  holy  city," 
was  entered  by  Simon  and  his  troops  amid  great 
rejoicing. 

According  to  Josephus,  the  people  were  called 
together,  and  it  was  decreed  in  solemn  assembly 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  JUDEA  95 

that  this  "Beelzebub"  of  Israel  be  utterly  demol- 
ished, "decapitated,  as  it  were,"  that  it  might 
never  again  rear  its  head  in  haughty  insolence 
above  the  Temple  Mount.  By  the  constant  and 
arduous  labor  of  many  hands,  for  three  years 
both  night  and  day,  it  was  reduced  to  the  level 
of  the  surrounding  plain,  over  which  the  Temple 
Mount  at  last  held  undisputed  sway. 

The  years  which  followed  were  peaceful  and 
prosperous.  If  the  ability  of  Jonathan  had 
commanded  the  admiration  of  the  people,  it  was 
Simon  upon  whom  they  bestowed  their  confidence 
and  affection.  uHe  was  a  genuinely  pontifical  and 
at  the  same  time  a  genuinely  royal  figure.  Upon 
his  venerable  gray  head,  tiara  and  crown  could  be 
joined  without  any  evident  impropriety."  His 
sane,  broad-minded  rule  which  looked  well  to  both 
the  secular  and  spiritual  interests  of  his  kingdom 
was  pleasing  alike  to  the  worldly  and  the  pious. 
He  fulfilled  the  prediction  of  the  aged  Mattathias 
by  being  a  father  to  them  all.  First  Maccabees 
draws  a  pleasant  picture  of  the  happy  homes, 
the  placid  and  contented  old  age,  the  active  and 
wholesome  youth  which  ^prevailed  beneath  his 
reign.  The  long-neglected  fields  were  again  tilled 
and  fruitful,  the  poor  cared  for,  the  wicked  pun- 
ished, and  the  temple  beautified.  A  few  Jewish 
coins,  shekels  and  half-shekels,  still  in  existence, 
are  believed  by  experts  to  have  been  stamped  in 


96  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

the  reign  of  Simon,  and  documents  and  treaties 
were  henceforth  dated  from  the  year  of  Simon, 
high  priest  and  prince  and  governor  of  the  Jews. 

The  transferal  of  the  office  of  high  priest 
from  the  house  of  Aaron  to  the  house  of  Asmon 
was  a  transgression  of  the  law  of  Moses,  and, 
as  such,  could  not  fail  to  be  questioned  by  the  more 
orthodox.  To  ratify  the  change,  a  solemn 
assembly  of  priests,  princes,  and  people  was  con- 
voked, and  it  was  resolved  that  the  office  of 
high  priest  be  conferred  upon  Simon  land  his 
descendants  forever.  The  decree  was  written 
upon  brazen  tablets,  and  placed  in  the  courts  of 
the  temple;  but  the  framers,  half-frightened  at 
their  own  audacity,  added  in  self-protection 
the  saving  clause  "until  a  prophet  should  be  sent 
from  God  to  show  them  a  better  way." 

Jonathan  had  taken  the  precaution  to  cement 
the  friendship  of  the  Jews  and  the  Romans  by 
renewing  the  first  treaty  between  the  two  nations, 
and  Simon  also  sent  ambassadors  to  Rome  to 
beg  for  a  renewal  of  the  old  alliance.  The 
messengers  carried  with  them  as  a  present  to  the 
Roman  Senate  a  magnificent  golden  shield  weigh- 
ing a  thousand  pounds,  and  in  return  received  a 
promise  of  amity  from  the  Roman  authorities, 
who  also  sent  letters  to  the  kings  of  the  surround- 
ing countries,  commanding  them  to  respect  the 
authority  of  Simon,  the  high  priest  of  the  Jews, 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  JUDEA  97 

and  to  refrain  from  waging  war  against  him. 

The  last  years  of  Simon's  reign  were  troubled 
by  war  with  Antiochus  Sidetes  of  Syria.  Simon 
was  prevented  by  his  great  age  from  taking  the 
field,  but  his  sons,  who  were  skilful  generals,  con- 
quered the  Syrian  army,  and  brought  the  dis- 
turbance to  a  speedy  close.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
long  and  honorable  life  of  the  aged  high  priest 
might  be  crowned  with  a  peaceful  death,  but  it 
was  otherwise  ordained.  While  inspecting  the 
fortresses  of  his  kingdom  with  his  two  sons,  he 
visited  his  son-in-law  Ptolemy,  a  wealthy  and 
ambitious  youth,  who  was  commandant  of  the 
fortress  of  Dok.  The  three  guests  were  royally 
entertained  at  a  great  banquet  given  in  their 
honor.  At  its  close,  while  the  feasters  were 
still  under  the  influence  of  wine,  they  were  treach- 
erously assassinated  by  the  order  of  their 
scheming  host,  who  wished  to  become  king  of 
Judea. 

The  would-be  usurper  next  sent  his  tools  to 
Gazara  to  take  the  life  of  John  Hyrcanus,  the 
eldest  surviving  son  and  natural  successor  of 
Simon ;  but  John,  who  was  informed  by  messengers 
of  his  brother-in-law's  plan,  had  the  murderers 
arrested  and  hastened  to  Jerusalem,  whence  he 
marched  with  an  army  upon  the  fortress  of  Dok 
to  avenge  the  death  of  his  father  and  two  broth- 
ers. Ptolemy  had  in  some  way  captured  John's 


98  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

mother,  and,  to  curb  her  son's  zeal,  the  aged 
lady  was  placed  half-naked  upon  the  walls  of  the 
fortress  and  scourged  until  the  blood  ran.  The 
heartless  son-in-law  threatened  to  hurl  his  victim 
from  the  dizzy  height  if  her  son  prolonged  the 
siege,  and  although,  with  a  spirit  worthy  of  the 
family  into  which  she  had  married,  she  declared 
herself  ready  to  endure  any  torture  if  only  her 
husband's  murderer  might  be  fittingly  punished, 
John,  who  could  not  bear  the  sight  of  her  suffer- 
ing, gave  up  his  first  plan  and  contented  himself 
with  barricading  the  fortress.  The  coming  of 
the  Sabbatical  year  soon  forbade  furthur  warfare, 
and  Ptolemy  fled  from  Judea,  but  not  until  his 
aged  captive  had  shared  the  fate  of  her  two  sons 
and  her  husband. 

Soon  after  John's  return  from  the  fortress  of 
Dok,  he  was  attacked  by  Antiochus  Sidetes, 
who  had  never  given  up  his  plans  for  the  conquest 
of  Palestine;  and  in  the  war  which  followed,  the 
Jews  lost  their  newly-won  independence  and  were 
again  compelled  to  pay  tribute  and  furnish  troops 
for  a  Syrian  king.  These  were  comparatively 
moderate  terms,  and  as  the  records  indicate  that 
all  Judea  was  overrun  and  conquered  by  the 
Syrian  troops,  it  is  probable  that  they  were 
obtained  only  by  the  timely  interference  of  Rome. 
In  B.  c.  129,  Antiochus  Sidetes  died  and  his  suc- 
cessors were  weak  and  degenerate  princes  so 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  JUDEA  99 

completely  occupied  by  their  own  petty  quarrels 
that  John  had  little  reason  to  fear  them. 

To  guard  against  further  emergencies,  how- 
ever, he  gathered  a  large  army  of  mercenaries, 
and  bent  his  entire  energy  toward  strengthening 
the  condition  of  his  kingdom  and  widening  its 
borders.  Three  ancient  enemies  of  Israel  were 
subdued  by  him.  First  the  Moabites,  living  on 
the  east  side  of  the  river  Jordan,  were  conquered 
and  the  land  of  Moab  was  made  a  part  of  Judea; 
next  the  Samaritan  capital  of  Shechem  was  taken 
by  John's  army,  and  the  Samaritan  temple  on  Mt. 
Gerizim,  long  the  rival  of  the  temple  at  Jerusa- 
lem, was  utterly  destroyed;  then  the  Edomites, 
whose  hatred  of  Israel  dated  back  to  the  time 
when  their  ancestor  Esau  was  deprived  of  his 
rightful  inheritance  by  the  crafty  Jacob,  were  com- 
pelled to  receive  the  rite  of  circumcision  and  the 
Jewish  law;  and  finally,  after  a  long  and  severe 
siege,  the  ancient  city  of  Samaria  was  razed  to  the 
ground,  and  the  neighboring  streams  were  di- 
verted from  their  natural  course  and  directed 
across  its  ruined  site. 

The  history  of  the  Jews  and  Samaritans  had 
long  run  in  parallel  lines.  In  the  latter  half  of 
the  eighth  century  B.  C.,  the  Israelites  who  lived 
in  Samaria  were  carried  as  captives  to  Babylon 
and  heathen  colonists  were  imported  in  large 
numbers  by  the  King  of  Assyria  to  inhabit  the 


100  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

thinly  populated  land.  The  immigrants  suffered 
from  the  depredations  of  the  wild  beasts  which 
overran  the  country,  and,  doubtless  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  a  few  remaining  Israelites  who  had 
escaped  capitivity  and  with  whom  they  had  inter- 
married, they  begged  the  King  of  Assyria  to 
send  them  a  priest  to  teach  them  how  to  worship 
the  God  of  the  land,  that  the  offended  Deity 
might  be  appeased  and  remove  this  sign  of  his 
displeasure.  Their  request  was  granted,  and  a 
mixed  religion,  half-heathen,  half-Jewish,  was 
adopted  by  the  mixed  population.  The  Penta- 
teuch became  their  sacred  book,  and  an  expected 
Messiah  their  cherished  hope.  When  the  Jews 
returned  from  exile  and  began  to  rebuild  the 
temple,  the  Samaritans  asked  for  a  share  in  the 
work.  The  contempt  with  which  their  request 
was  refused  resulted  in  a  fierce  and  lasting  enmity 
between  the  two  races,  haughty  disdain  on  the 
part  of  the  Jews,  and  the  reluctant  and  imperfect 
imitation  sometimes  rendered  by  a  subordinate 
to  an  envied  and  hated  superior,  on  the  part  of 
the  Samaritans,  of  whom  Josephus  declared 
"that  when  the  Jews  are  in  adversity,  they  deny 
that  they  are  of  kin  to  them ;  but  when  they  per- 
ceive that  some  good  fortune  has  befallen  them, 
they  immediately  pretend  to  have  communion 
with  them,  saying  that  they  belong  to  them." 
Historical  events  prove  that  the  Jewish  his- 


INDEPENDENCE  OV  JUDEA  101 


torian's  opinion  was  founded  upon  fact.  When 
the  Jews  asked  Alexander  the  Great  for  freedom 
from  tribute  during  the  Sabbatical  year,  the 
Samaritans,  as  their  relatives,  declared  themselves 
entitled  to  the  same  privilege.  Samaritan  colon- 
ists followed  the  Jews  to  Egypt  and  Samaritan 
and  Jewish  colonies  were  planted  side  by  side; 
but  during  the  persecution  under  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  the  Samaritans  disowned  all  relation- 
ship with  the  Jews,  allowing  the  mad  monarch 
to  dedicate  the  temple  on  Mt.  Gerizim  to  the 
Olympian  Jupiter,  and  giving  the  new  patron  a 
warm  welcome.  After  the  destruction  of  the 
temple  on  Mt.  Gerizim,  a  new  temple  was  erected 
in  Shechem,  and  at  the  time  of  the  events  recorded 
in  the  New  Testament,  the  Samaritans  still  hated 
and  imitated  the  Jews,  reverencing  their  sacred 
books  and  maintaining  a  lax  worship  of  their 
God. 

John  Hyrcanus  now  reigned  over  a  greater 
kingdom  than  any  Jewish  monarch  since  the 
glorious  days  of  David  and  Solomon;  but  as  the 
body  of  the  kingdom  grew  and  waxed  strong,  the 
fine  spirit  of  faith  and  heroism  which  had  sus- 
tained the  Maccabees  through  the  horrors  of  the 
persecution  and  the  gallant  struggle  which  suc- 
ceeded it,  deteriorated  into  a  respectable  and  suc- 
cessful materialism.  Spiritual  welfare  was 
pushed  more  and  more  into  the  background,  and 


102  T&K  ROMAN  PERIOD 

secular  prosperity  engrossed  the  attention  of 
high  priest  and  nobles.  In  the  ancient  days  of 
Israel's  prosperity,  the  ambitious  designs  of 
Jewish  kings  had  been  checked  by  high  priest  or 
prophet,  but  now  the  supremacy  of  both  church 
and  state,  a  heavy  weight,  rested  in  the  unre- 
strained hands  of  one  man.  The  name  of  the 
reigning  prince  was  stamped  upon  the  coins  of 
the  realm,  and  coins  still  extant  prove  that 
throughout  the  years  of  his  long  reign,  John  was 
constantly  becoming  more  and  more  like  the 
Syrian  despots  of  the  surrounding  provinces,  the 
inscription  "Jochanan  the  high  priest  and  the  con- 
gregation of  the  Jews"  on  earlier  coins  becoming 
upon  those  issued  at  a  later  date,  "Jochanan  the 
high  priest  and  chief  of  the  congregation  of 
the  Jews." 

The  worldly  nature  of  John's  policy  excited 
the  antagonism  of  the  pious,  who  in  his  reign  first 
made  their  appearance  as  Pharisees.  The  Phar- 
isees or  Separatists  sprang  from  the  seed  sown 
by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  in  the  fifth  century  B.  C. 
Their  peculiar  conception  of  duty  to  God,  the 
observance  of  not  only  the  law  of  Moses,  but  also 
of  all  the  minute  and  petty  details  of  the  oral 
tradition,  was  their  idol,  and  upon  its  altar,  they 
willingly  sacrificed  worldly  prosperity  and  po- 
litical ambition.  Opposed  to  the  Pharisees  were 
the  Sadducees,  the  priestly  class  from  whose  ranks 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  JUDEA  103 

the  high  priest  was  chosen.  They  were  the 
nobles  and  aristocrats  of  Judea  who  labored  for 
its  political  advancement,  and  cared  compara- 
tively little  for  either  law  or  religion.  They 
chose  to  be  comfortable  in  this  world  rather  than 
endure  discomforts  by  which  they  might  gain  the 
promised  blessings  of  a  doubtful  world  to  come, 
and  when  any  question  arose  between  serving  an 
earthly  and  a  heavenly  king,  decided  without 
hesitation  in  favor  of  the  former. 

The  original  Maccabees,  from  the  very  nature 
of  the  struggle,  must  necessarily  be  the  friends 
and  adherents  of  the  Pharisees,  but  when  the 
policy  of  their  successors  became  one  of  political 
aggrandizement,  they  were  obliged  to  depend 
upon  Sadducees  for  support. 

A  legendary  anecdote  is  told  of  the  break 
between  John  Hyrcanus  and  the  Pharisees.  A 
great  banquet  was  given  by  the  king  to  the  Phar- 
isees and  the  tables  were  spread  with  food  which 
should  recall  the  difference  between  past  and 
present.  As  they  sat  about  the  board  upon 
which  the  roots  and  herbs  which  had  been  the 
humble  fare  of  the  Maccabean  rebels,  were 
placed  side  by  side  with  the  sumptious  viands 
upon  which  the  court  of  John  'Hyrcanus  dined 
daily,  the  king  begged  his  guests  to  correct  him 
if  in  any  way  he  had  done  that  which  was 
displeasing  to  God  or  transgressed  the  law  which 


104  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

was  their  rule  for  a  righteous  life.  A  shower  of 
flattery,  broken  only  by  one  dissenting  voice, 
followed  his  request.  A  certain  Eleazar,  a 
'Pharisee,  replied  "If  you  would  know  the  truth, 
O  king,  renounce  the  high-priesthood  and  be 
content  with  the  principality."  Eleazar's  expo- 
sure of  the  truth  made  the  king  very  angry,  for 
he  well  knew  that  only  a  descendant  of  the 
house  of  Aaron  was  eligible  to  the  office  of  high 
priest.  At  the  suggestion  of  Jonathan,  a  Sad- 
ducee,  he  tested  the  loyalty  of  the  Pharisees  by 
asking  them  what  punishment  should  be  inflicted 
upon  Eleazar  for  his  impertinence.  The  answer 
was,  "Forty  stripes  save  one,"  and  as  the  king 
felt  that  banishment  or  death  would  be  a  more 
fitting  punishment  for  so  grave  a  misdemeanor, 
he  henceforth  distrusted  the  Pharisees  and  be- 
came the  friend  and  ally  of  the  Sadducees. 

John  Hyrcanus  was  so  powerful  a  king  that 
the  Pharisees  were  completely  dominated  by 
him.  His  long  and  able  reign  of  thirty-one 
years  cannot  fail  to  command  our  admiration 
and  respect,  but,  at  its  close,  unrestrained  power 
and  untempered  materialism  had  given  the  down- 
hill course  of  the  house  of  Asmon  such  impetus 
that  we  find  in  the  sons  who  succeeded  him  two 
of  the  most  vicious  and  degraded  characters  of 
Jewish  history. 

Aristobulus,  his  eldest  son  and  successor,  was 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  JUDEA  105 

the  first  of  the  Asmonean  princes  to  wear  the 
diadem  and  assume  the  title  King  of  the  Jews. 
Varied  reports  of  his  career  have  been  handed 
down  to  us.  He  was  the  avowed  friend  and 
disciple  of  the  Greeks,  whose  historians  praise 
his  goodness  and  humanity,  but  Josephus  asserts 
that  his  short  reign  was  lurid  with  crime.  His 
account  tells  us  that  John  Hyrcanus  had  ap- 
pointed his  widow  as  his  successor,  but  that  she 
was  imprisoned  and  starved  to  death  by  her 
inhuman  son  when  she  asserted  her  claim  to  the 
throne;  also  that  he  imprisoned  three  of  his 
brothers  and  murdered  a  fourth  in  a  fit  of 
suspicious  jealousy. 

When  Aristobulus  died,  after  a  brief  reign  of 
one  year,  his  brothers  were  released  from  prison 
by  his  widow,  Alexandra  Salome,  and  the  elder, 
Alexander  Jannaeus,  became  high  priest  and 
king.  In  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  the 
Jewish  law,  the  widow  of  the  dead  king  became 
the  wife  of  the  reigning  Alexander,  a  worthless 
reprobate,  whose  long  reign  was  a  series  of  unin- 
teresting intrigues  and  petty  wars  in  which  he 
showed  no  marked  ability  and  was  often  unsuc- 
cessful. It  was  utterly  revolting  to  the  Phari- 
sees that  this  young  man,  who  spent  his  life  in 
carousals  with  vulger  associates,  should  rule  the 
chosen  people  of  God  and  should  officiate  at 
their  sacred  ceremonies;  and  when,  at  the  Feast 


106  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

of  Tabernacles,  he  poured  out  the  sacred  libation 
with  a  sneering  remark,  they  could  no  longer 
conceal  their  disrespect,  but  openly  pelted  him 
with  citron  they  had  brought  for  a  sacrifice. 
Alexander  summoned  his  hired  soldiers,  and  six 
hundred  Jews  perished  in  the  massacre  which 
followed.  A  wooden  barricade  was  erected 
about  the  altar,  and  by  its  shelter  the  high  priest 
was  protected  from  further  expression  of  his 
people's  regard  when  he  performed  the  duties 
of  his  sacred  office. 

Bitter  hostility  and  a  long  war  in  which  the 
Pharisees  were  joined  by  Demetrius  Eukairos, 
was  the  result  of  the  outbreak.  First  one  side 
and  then  the  other  won  temporary  advantages, 
but  the  conflict  ended  in  the  defeat  of  the  Phari- 
sees. To  celebrate  his  victory,  the  high  priest 
and  king  crucified  eight  hundred  Pharisees  and 
tortured  and  killed  wives  and  children  before 
the  eyes  of  his  dying  victims.  At  the  same 
hour,  he  gave  his  mistresses  and  dancers  a  great 
feast,  and  entertained  them  by  the  sight  of  the 
dreadful  spectacle. 

Alexander's  misrule  was  ended  in  his  forty- 
eighth  year,  when  he  died  of  an  illness  which  was 
the  result  of  his  licentious  life.  Jewish  annals 
tell  us  that  he  repented  on  his  death-bed  and 
advised  his  wife,  Alexandra,  to  whom  he  left  his 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  JUDEA  107 

kingdom,  to  become  the  ally  of  the  Pharisees 
and  to  be  guided  by  them. 

Queen  Alexandra  was  the  sister  of  Simon  ben 
Shetach,  the  famous  Pharisee,  and  was  a  conscien- 
tious and  God-fearing  woman.  Josephus  char- 
acterizes her  reign  as  follows:  "She  had  indeed 
the  name  of  regent,  but  the  Pharisees  had  the 
authority,  for  it  was  they  who  restored  such  as 
were  banished  and  set  such  as  were  prisoners  at 
liberty,  and  to  say  all  at  once,  they  differed 
nothing  from  lords."  On  the  whole,  the  people, 
over  whom  the  Pharisees  exerted  a  tremendous 
influence,  were  well-pleased  with  the  peace  and 
abundance  of  Alexandra's  reign.  It  was  de- 
scribed in  the  Pharisaic  tradition  as  a  golden  age 
in  which  even  the  fruits  of  the  soil  were  miracu- 
lously blessed  by  the  piety  and  goodness  of  the 
queen.  Under  Simon  ben  Shetach,  and  Queen 
Salome,  "rain  fell  on  the  eve  of  the  Sabbath, 
so  that  corns  of  wheat  were  as  large  as  kidneys, 
the  barley  corns  as  large  as  olives,  and  the  lentils 
like  golden  denarii;  the  scribes  gathered  such 
corns,  and  preserved  specimens  of  them  in  order 
to  show  future  generations  what  sin  entails." 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  RIVAL   CLAIMANTS   FOR  THE 
JEWISH   THRONE 

The  Pharisaic  Queen  Alexandra  had  two  sons. 
The  elder,  Hyrcanus,  was  the  friend  of  the  Phar- 
isees and  had  officiated  as  high  priest  during  the 
nine  years  of  his  mother's  reign.  Of  colorless 
and  insipid  personality,  insignificant  in  both 
appearance  and  character,  he  was  thrust  by  the 
accident  of  inheritance  into  the  conspicuous  niche 
which  he  could  never  fill,  and  much  less  adorn. 
Aristobulus,  the  younger  son,  was  the  favorite 
and  stirring  leader  of  the  gay  young  Sadducees 
of  Judea.  He  was  capable  and  ambitious,  in 
every  way  a  contrast  to  his  indolent  elder 
brother. 

It  was  contrary  to  every  law  of  human  su- 
premacy save  that  of  birth  that  the  energetic 
younger  brother  should  submit  to  the  feeble 
rule  of  the  elder,  and  already,  during  his 
mother's  last  illness,  Aristobulus,  with  his  band 
of  young  nobles,  had  taken  possession  of  the 
most  important  strongholds  in  Judea  with  the 

108 


THE  RIVAL  PRINCES  109 

intention  of  making  the  sovereign  power  his  own 
when  the  time  should  be  ripe  for  action.  Hyr- 
canus  had  no  sooner  been  formally  crowned 
high  priest  and  king  after  his  mother's  death, 
than  he  was  attacked  by  Aristobulus,  and  so 
badly  beaten  in  a  battle  at  Jericho  that  he  was 
thoroughly  intimidated  and  hastily  sought  refuge 
behind  the  sheltering  walls  of  the  citadel  at 
Jerusalem,  whence  he  sent  a  messenger  to 
arrange  terms  of  peace.  An  agreement  was 
soon  reached,  for  Hyrcanus,  who  had  been 
reminded  of  his  various  deficiences  with  broth- 
erly frankness,  was  easily  persuaded  to  exchange 
places  with  Aristobulus;  to  give  up  his  public 
position,  retaining  only  the  property  he  had  ac- 
quired; and  to  acknowledge  his  brother  high 
priest  and  king  in  his  stead.  The  treaty  was 
ratified  in  a  public  gathering  at  the  temple,  and 
the  two  brothers,  after  exchanging  oaths  and 
embracing  before  the  assembled  people,  departed 
thence,  Aristobulus  to  the  royal  palace,  and 
Hyrcanus,  now  a  private  individual,  to  the 
former  home  of  Aristobulus.  As  a  final  pre- 
caution, the  terms  of  the  contract  were  cemented 
by  the  betrothal  of  Alexander,  the  eldest  son  of 
Aristobulus,  to  Alexandra,  the  daughter  and 
only  child  of  the  deposed  Hyrcanus. 

Hyrcanus  had  hardly  begun,   in  perfect  con- 
tentment to  live  the  life  of  harmless  mediocrity 


110  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

to  which  he  was  consigned,  when  Its  even  tenor 
was  broken  by  the  disturbing  influence  of  one 
who  was  to  wrest  the  rudder  of  the  storm-tossed 
Jewish  ship  of  state  from  the  unsteady  hands  of 
the  Asmonean  kings;  Antipater  the  Edomite, 
best  known  to  history  as  the  father  of  Herod 
the  Great.  The  father  of  this  descendant  of  the 
defrauded  Esau  had  been  appointed  governor 
of  Edom  (or  Idumea)  by  Alexander  Jannaeus, 
and  his  son,  as  his  successor,  had  become  a  prom- 
inent figure  in  the  court  of  the  Jewish  sovereigns. 
He  was  clever  and  unprincipled  and  possessed,  in 
the  superlative  degree,  eyes  keen  to  discern  in 
each  man  the  hidden  spring  which  controls 
action,  and  presence  of  mind  to  touch  it  with  deft 
fingers  at  the  critical  moment.  By  tact  and 
diplomacy,  he  had  gained  a  large  "following  of 
prominent  Jews  and  of  the  Arabian  chiefs  whose 
territory  bordered  upon  Idumea.  As  he  saw  in 
the  weakling  Hyrcanus  a  tool  with  which  he 
might  fashion  for  himself  a  high  seat  in  Judea, 
he  espoused  the  cause  of  this  second  disinher- 
ited elder  brother  of  the  seed  of  Abraham;  the 
two  became  life-long  friends  and  the  image  of 
the  Idumean's  sinister  designs  was  henceforth 
the  central  figure  in  the  mind  of  Hyrcanus, 
which,  mirror-like,  reflected  the  thought  and 
purpose  of  the  last  passer-by. 

To  make  trouble  for  Aristobulus  and  excite 


THE  RIVAL  PRINCES  111 

sympathy  for  his  friend,  Antipater  was  con- 
stantly intimating  that  the  latter  had  been 
unfairly  treated.  He  lost  no  opportunity  to 
circulate  false  reports  rn  regard  to  Aristobulus 
and  persistently  reminded  the  elder  prince  of 
his  lost  inheritance,  audaciously  suggesting  that 
on  account  of  his  younger  brother's  enmity,  his 
life  was  no  longer  safe  in  Judea.  The  insinu- 
ations of  Antipater  finally  had  the  desired  effect; 
Hyrcanus  was  induced  to  flee  with  him  to  the 
country  of  his  friend  and  ally,  the  powerful 
Arabian  chief  Aretas.  By  promising  to  restore 
the  twelve  cities  taken  from  the  Arabians  by 
Alexander  Jannaeus,  the  rebels  persuaded  Aretas 
to  join  them,  and  with  their  combined  forces, 
they  marched  back  into  Judea.  Aristobulus  was 
met  and  defeated,  his  fickle  soldiers  deserted  in 
large  numbers  to  the  victors,  and  with  a  follow- 
ing of  only  a  few  faithful  priests,  he  fled  to  that 
refuge  of  all  distressed  Asmoneans,  the  temple 
fortress,  where  he  was  beseiged  by  Aretas  and 
the  victorious  Pharisees.  Two  incidents  of  the 
siege  related  by  Josephus  indicate  that  Jewish 
piety  was  fast  becoming  the  empty  shell  of  its 
former  self. 

A  virtuous  priest,  Onias  by  name,  whose  prayer 
for  rain  in  time  of  a  severe  drought  had  been 
followed  by  abundant  showers,  was  commanded 
by  the  Pharisees  to  invoke  the  displeasure  of  God 


112  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

upon  the  party  of  Aristobulus.  He  at  first  re- 
fused, but  when  he  was  compelled  to  speak,  re- 
luctantly arose,  and  uttered  this  prayer  in  the 
presence  of  the  assembled  people.  "O  God,  the 
King  of  the  whole  world,  since  those  that  stand 
now  with  me  are  Thy  people,  and  those  that  are 
besieged  are  also  Thy  priests,  I  beseech  Thee  that 
Thou  wilt  neither  harken  to  the  prayers  of  those 
against  these,  nor  bring  to  effect  what  these  pray 
against  those."  Whereupon  he  was  stoned  by 
the  wicked  Pharisees  and  paid  with  his  life  for 
his  brave  neutrality. 

The  date  of  the  passover  occurred  soon  after 
the  death  of  Onias  Aristobulus  and  his  friends 
could  procure  no  lambs  for  a  paschal  offering 
in  the  besieged  city.  They  begged  the  besieg- 
ing party  to  provide  them  with  animals  for 
the  needed  sacrifice,  promising  them  in  return 
any  sum  of  money  they  might  ask.  When  the  ex- 
orbitant amount  of  a  thousand  pieces  of  silver 
had  been  named  as  the  price  of  a  single  lamb,  the 
money  was  let  down  over  the  walls  of  the  city  to 
the  Pharisees,  who  coolly  pocketed  it,  and  the 
cheated  priests  waited  in  vain  for  the  promised 
sacrifice. 

While  the  rival  claimants  for  the  Jewish 
throne  were  entrenched,  one  within  and  one 
without  the  besieged  city  of  Jerusalem,  Pompey, 
the  Roman  imperator,  was  daily  winning  fresh 


THE  RIVAL  PRINCES  113 

victories  in  his  contest  for  the  dictatorship  of  the 
East,  which  had  been  gradually  slipping  from  the 
hands  of  Rome.  Already  he  had  sent  advance 
lieutenants  into  Syria  which,  torn  by  internal 
strife  and  dismembered  by  the  hostile  tribes 
which  encircled  it,  was  soon  to  fall  an  easy  prey 
to  the  Roman  commander  and  his  army. 

Reports  of  the  strife  in  Judea  had  reached 
Scaurus,  Pompey's  advance  lieutenant  in  Syria, 
and  he  hastened  into  Palestine  to  have  a  hand  in 
the  matter;  for  Rome,  the  mistress  of  the  world, 
must  assert  her  authority  even  in  this  remote 
corner  of  her  domain.  Scaurus  was  met  by  am- 
bassadors from  Aristobulus  and  Hyrcanus,  who 
both  promised  him  equally  large  sums  of  money 
for  the  favor  and  aid  of  Rome.  His  decision 
was  characteristic  of  the  Roman  of  his  day.  Ar- 
istobulus was  preferred  because  he  was  better 
able  to  pay  the  promised  bribe.  The  money  was 
accepted,  the  siege  raised,  and  Aretas  sent  home 
with  the  threat  that  if  his  hostility  were  continued, 
he  would  be  pronounced  the  enemy  of  the  Roman 
people.  But  such  mild  disposal  of  his  foes  was 
far  from  satisfactory  to  the  fiery  Aristobulus. 
With  his  followers,  he  pursued  Aretas  to  Papy- 
ron,  where  a  battle  was  fought  in  which  six 
thousand  Pharisees  and  Arabians  were  killed. 

The  coming  of  Pompey,  which  occurred  about 
a  year  later,  was  awaited  by  the  Jews  with  eager 


114  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

interest,  for  Judea  was  still  without  a  king,  and 
the  choice  of  the  great  Roman  was  to  be  final. 
While  the  arbiter  of  Jewish  fate  was  still  at 
Damascus,  he  was  met  by  messengers  who  bore  as 
a  gift  from  Aristobulus,  a  golden  vine  worth  five 
hundred  talents  in  gold,  of  such  rare  beauty  and 
exquisite  workmanship  that  for  years  it  was 
deemed  worthy  of  a  conspicuous  place  in  the 
Roman  Capitol. 

In  the  following  spring,  Damascus  witnessed 
the  first  memorable  meeting  of  the  Roman  and 
Jewish  potentates.  The  chief  justice  in  this  tri- 
bunal before  which  the  Jewish  princes  were  to 
plead  their  cause  was  the  handsome  and  engaging 
Roman  in  whom  honesty  and  ambition  strove 
ever  for  the  mastery.  Fresh  from  his  victory 
over  the  pirates  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  his 
yet  more  brilliant  victory  over  JVtithridates,  his 
thirst  for  power  and  conquest  was  still  unap- 
peased;  he  was  still  seeking  new  adventures  and 
novel  experiences,  still  looking  for  new  worlds 
to  conquer.  The  appearance  of  the  suppliants  be- 
fore the  bar  of  justice  was  characteristic.  Aris- 
tobulus entered  Damascus  surrounded  by  all  the 
tinsel  and  glitter  of  O'riental  royalty.  He  was 
accompanied  by  a  band  of  young  cavaliers  who, 
with  their  scarlet  mantles,  long  curling  hair,  and 
gay  trappings,  appeared  "not  as  though  they  were 
to  plead  their  cause  in  a  court  of  justice,  but  as 


THE  RIVAL  PRINCES  115 

if  they  were  marching  in  a  pompous  procession." 
Antipater  was,  as  always,  the  commanding  figure 
and  spokesman  in  the  party  of  the  insignificant 
Hyrcanus.  On  account  of  his  hated  Idumean  blood, 
the  wily  Edomite  dared  not  openly  declare  him- 
self a  candidate  for  the  throne  of  Judea,  but  by 
making  Hyrcanus  his  echo,  he  had  become  the 
real,  if  not  the  acknowledged  rival  and  opponent 
of  the  war-like  Aristobulus.  He  did  not  hesitate 
to  accuse  the  younger  prince  of  persistently  stir- 
ring up  sedition  and  rebellion;  he  even  implied 
that  Aristobulus  had  been  allied  with  the  pirates 
of  the  Mediterranean  just  conquered  by  Pompey, 
and  his  arraignment  was  confirmed  by  no  less  than 
a  thousand  Jews  of  good  standing  whom  he  had 
brought  as  witnesses.  There  was  yet  a  third 
party  of  suppliants,  almost  disregarded  at  the 
time,  but  destined  later  to  become  a  ruling  fac- 
tion, to  whom  the  worldliness  and  strife  of  the 
kingly  government  had  become  obnoxious  and 
who  wished  to  re-establish  the  old  theocratic 
order  of  priests. 

The  showy  parade  of  Aristobulus  and  his  fol- 
lowers was  wholly  offensive  to  Pompey,  who  still 
retained  the  simple  tastes  of  the  early  Romans. 
It  was  apparent  from  the  very  first  that  Hyrcanus 
was  to  be  preferred  and  that  the  wily  and  agree- 
able Edomite  was  better  fitted  to  cope  with  Rome 
than  his  outspoken  and  impetuous  opponent;  but 


116  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

with  the  hesitation  for  which  he  was  distin- 
guished, the  imperator  still  deferred  the  final 
decision. 

Pompey's  wide-spread  fame  for  humanity  and 
justice  had  inspired  the  confidence  of  Aristobulus, 
but  like  many  others  who  had  looked  to  the  great 
Roman  "for  guidance  in  their  perplexities  and 
deliverance  from  danger,  found  there  was  neither 
light  nor  leading  in  the  idol  he  had  set  up  for 
worship."  Half-distracted,  he  fluctuated  be- 
tween pride  and  fear.  His  better  judgment 
told  him  that  opposition  to  Rome  was  futile,  his 
pride  that  the  humiliation  of  surrender  would  be 
unendurable.  In  a  fit  of  desperation,  he  shut 
himself  up  in  the  fortress  of  Alexandreum,  and 
there  defied  the  Roman  conqueror.  When,  how- 
ever, his  countrymen  entreated  him  not  to  make 
war  against  the  Romans,  and  Pompey  commanded 
him  to  capitulate,  he  yielded  hoping  against  hope 
that  the  preference  of  the  Roman  commander 
might  yet  be  his ;  but  finding  that  his  expectations 
were  unwarranted,  he  again  became  reckless,  re- 
tired to  Jerusalem,  closed  the  gates  of  the  city 
and  prepared  for  war.  Pompey  and  his  Roman 
legions  advanced  upon  the  holy  city,  and  again 
the  pride  of  Aristobulus  yielded  to  his  fear.  He 
went  to  Pompey  in  person,  begged  his  forgiveness 
and  threw  himself  upon  his  mercy,  promising  him 
a  large  sum  of  money  and  a  peaceful  entrance 


THE  RIVAL  PRINCES  117 

into  Jerusalem.  But  when  the  followers  of  Aris- 
tobulus  declined  to  fulfill  his  promise,  and  Pom- 
pey's  lieutenant  was  refused  admittance  to  the 
city,  the  patience  of  the  Roman  commander  gave 
way.  Too  proud  to  submit,  too  faithless  to  be  a 
loyal  ally,  and  too  powerless  to  control  his  own 
soldiers,  Aristobulus  had  displayed  his  instability 
at  every  turn.  He  was  thrown  into  chains,  and 
the  Romans  prepared  to  besiege  the  city.  Hyr- 
canus  and  his  followers  opened  the  gates  of  Jeru- 
salem to  their  Roman  friends,  and  assisted  them 
in  every  possible  way,  but  the  patriots,  angered  by 
the  capture  of  their  king,  opposed  the  Romans  in 
the  temple  fortress.  For  three  months  the  siege 
continued.  Then  the  patriots'  faithful  observ- 
ance of  the  Sabbath  caused  their  downfall. 
During  the  sacred  day  of  rest,  the  Romans  were 
able  for  the  first  time  to  raise  an  embankment  on 
which  to  place  their  battering-rams,  and  one  of 
the  great  towers  tottered  and  fell  beneath  the 
shower  of  great  stones  which  rained  down  upon 
it.  Cornelius,  the  son  of  the  dictator  Sulla,  was 
the  first  man  to  scale  the  walls  and  enter  the  for- 
tress through  the  breach.  Swarms  of  Roman 
soldiers,  embittered  by  the  stubborn  resistance  of 
the  patriots,  followed  him,  and  there  ensued  one 
of  those  dreadful  massacres  all  too  frequent  in 
the  history  of  Jerusalem.  Twelve  thousand  citi- 
zens were  slain.  Mad  with  horror  and  despair, 


118  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

many  of  the  conquered  threw  themselves  over 
precipitous  cliffs  or  set  fire  to  their  houses  and 
perished  in  the  flames.  The  priests  in  the  black 
robes  which  replaced  the  white  garments  of 
happier  days  refused  to  leave  their  post,  and 
were  cut  down  as  they  sat  motionless  around  the 
temple  altar. 

Led  by  curiosity,  through  the  courts  of  the 
temple,  past  the  sacred  candlestick,  the  golden 
table  of  shew  bread,  and  consecrated  treasury 
which  contained  at  this  time  no  less  than  two 
thousand  talents  in  gold,  Pompey  and  his  soldiers 
paused  at  last  before  the  threshold  of  the  Holy 
of  Holies,  beyond  which  even  the  audacious"  feet 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  had  never  passed.  It 
was  a  time  of  unrest  and  expansion  in  Rome, 
when  men  felt  the  need  of  a  wider  life  and 
broader  range  of  thought.  Greek  philosophy 
and  Oriental  superstition,  even  the  religion  of  an 
ally  in  remote  Judea,  were  subjects  for  specula- 
tion and  discussion;  and  since  reports  of  the 
quarrel  of  the  rival  princes  had  reached  the  ears 
of  Rome,  many  had  been  the  conjectures  in 
Roman  schools  of  philosophy  as  to  who  and  what 
the  God  of  the  Jews  might  be.  Was  the  object 
of  Jewish  veneration,  as  rumour  said,  the  head  of 
an  ass,  the  venerable  law  giver  himself  with 
his  long  beard  and  tables  of  stone,  the  golden 
cherubim  which  had  been  stolen  and  carried  away 


THE  RIVAL  PRINCES  119 

to  Babylon,  or  a  marble  god  in  human  form  like 
those  which  adorned  the  altar  of  the  .Roman 
capitol?  Pompey  drew  aside  the  curtain  which 
concealed  the  truth,  and  the  empty  and  silent 
room  where  sincere  high  priests  had  communed 
with  the  invisible  Jehovah,  stood  revealed. 
With  the  sight  of  that  quiet  inner  shrine,  Rome 
received  her  first  conception  of  a  God  so  high  and 
holy  that  He  transcended  human  thought  and 
that  any  attempted  representation  of  Him  formed 
by  human  hands  would  have  seemed  a  profan- 
ation to  His  followers.  With  an  honesty  which 
the  Roman  officials  of  his  day  rarely  possessed, 
Pompey  left  the  treasures  of  the  temple  quite  un- 
touched, and  graciously  commanded  that  all 
traces  of  contamination  produced  by  his  entrance 
be  removed. 

The  Jews  were  now  at  the  mercy  of  their  con- 
querors. The  leaders  of  the  insurrection  were 
executed,  and  Judea,  stripped  of  all  the  territory 
acquired  by  the  Asmonean  monarchs,  became 
once  again  a  tributary  state.  Hyrcanus  was  ap- 
pointed vassal  high  priest,  and  Aristobulus  with 
his  children  was  taken  captive  to  Italy,  where 
with  three  hundred  and  sixty-two  other  captive 
princes,  he  graced  the  greatest  triumph  that 
Rome  had  ever  witnessed.  The  golden  vine  with 
which  he  had  hoped  to  purchase  the  favor  of 
Rome  was  displayed  on  the  car  which  bore  the 


120  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

spoils  of  the  campaign,  and  as  he  walked  with  his 
children  before  the  chariot  of  the  victorious  Pom- 
pey,  his  beauty  and  noble  bearing  so  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  Roman  populace  that  they  be- 
stowed upon  him  the  title,  "Our  Hero  of 
Jerusalem." 

Aristobulus  and  his  children  were  retained  in 
Rome  as  hostages;  and  the  Judean  captives  of 
inferior  rank  who  had  been  transported  in  large 
numbers,  and  at  their  release,  had  lacked  either 
the  means  or  the  disposition  to  return  to  their 
native  land,  settled  on  the  further  bank  of  the 
Tiber.  There  they  formed  the  nucleus  of  that 
community  of  Jews  who  so  excited  the  interest  of 
the  Romans  that  their  peculiar  customs  and  re- 
ligious observances  became  the  theme  of  which 
Horace  and  other  Latin  authors  frequently 
wrote.  The  colony  formed  by  these  humble 
captives  increased  constantly  in  size  and  exerted 
an  influence,  of  which  their  Roman  captors  had 
not  dreamed,  for  from  the  community  thus  es- 
tablished sprang,  a  century  later,  the  Christian 
church  of  Rome. 

Although  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  faith 
in  God  which  had  glorified  the  patriotism  of  the 
original  Maccabees  was  long  since  dead,  their 
courage  still  lived  in  their  captured  descendants, 
who  were  determined  not  to  submit  without  a 
struggle.  In  B.  c.  57,  Alexander,  the  elder  son 


THE  RIVAL  PRINCES  121 

of  Aristobulus,  who  had  escaped  from  his  cap- 
tors on  the  way  to  Rome,  became  the  leader  of 
an  uprising  in  Judea.  He  received  the  enthus- 
iastic support  of  his  countrymen,  and  gained  one 
or  two  victories,  but  was  soon  obliged  to  sur- 
render by  Gabinius,  who,  to  prevent  further  re- 
bellion, deprived  the  high  priest  of  all  political 
power,  and  divided  the  country  into  five  districts, 
each  governed  by  its  own  sanhedrin.  In  the 
following  year,  Aristobulus  with  his  son  Anti- 
gonus,  succeeded  in  eluding  the  vigilance  of  their 
Roman  guards,  and  fleeing  to  Judea,  took  refuge 
in  the  fortress  of  Alexandreum  where  the  Jewish 
prince  had  once  before  defied  the  Romans,  only 
to  find  as  before  that  resistance  was  useless  and 
independence  impossible.  As  a  punishment  for 
his  audacity,  he  was  sentenced  to  a  life  of  solitary 
confinement  in  Rome,  but  his  children  were  set 
free  by  the  Roman  senate.  In  B.  c.  5-5,  Alexander 
made  a  last  desperate  attempt  to  regain  the 
kingdom  wrested  from  his  father,  but  again  met 
with  discomfiture  and  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the 
Romans. 

Little  beyond  a  few  scattered  dates  is  known 
of  the  period  succeeding  these  insurrections. 
In  B.  c.  55,  Crassus,  the  Roman  triumvir,  sacked 
the  Jewish  temple,  and  when  six  years  later,  the 
civil  war  between  Caesar  and  Pompey  took  place, 
Judea,  like  other  Roman  provinces,  was  compelled 


122  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

to  bear  a  heavy  burden  of  hardship  and  expense. 
During  this  war,  Caesar  released  Aristobulus  and 
was  about  to  send  him  into  Judea  at  the  head  of 
two  Roman  legions  when  the  stormy  life  of  the 
Jewish  prince  was  ended  by  a  dose  of  poison  from 
the  hands  of  Pompey' s  adherents.  His  son  Alex- 
ander was  at  the  same  time  executed  in  Antioch 
by  the  command  of  Pompey. 

After  Caesar's  victory  at  Pharsalia  had 
brought  the  civil  war  to  a  close,  Antipater,  who 
since  the  surrender  of  Jerusalem  to  the  Romans 
had  possessed  what  little  power  the  Romans 
had  thought  best  to  entrust  to  the  Jews,  with 
Hyrcanus  did  everything  in  his  power  to  win 
the  favor  of  the  victor.  They  were  so  successful 
that  Antipater's  tortuous  career  was  crowned 
by  the  honor  he  had  long  desired.  He  was 
made  procurator  of  Judea  and  the  office  of 
ethnarch  was  conferred  upon  Hyrcanus.  The 
divisions  established  by  Gabinius  were  abolished, 
the  Jews  were  allowed  to  rebuild  the  city  walls 
destroyed  by  Pompey,  and  such  favors  were  be- 
stowed upon  the  nation  by  Caesar  that  at  his 
death,  he  is  said  to  have  been  more  sincerely 
mourned  by  them  than  by  any  other  class  of  His 
subjects. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HEROD  THE   GREAT 

Even  when  Herod  the  Great  was  yet  a  lad  in 
school,  an  Essenian  soothsayer,  attracted  by  the 
remarkable  strength  and  beauty  of  the  boy, 
slapped  the  wondering  child  on  the  back  and 
proclaimed  to  him  his  future  destiny  as  King  of 
the  Jews.  At  twenty-five,  or,  according  to 
some  historians,  at  fifteen,  he  was  made  gov- 
ernor of  Galilee  by  his  father,  Antipater,  an 
office  in  which  he  found  ample  outlet  for  his 
tremendous  energy  of  mind  and  body;  and  at 
sixty,  he  led  a  campaign  against  the  Arabians  with 
unimpaired  vigor.  Like  the  original  Esau,  he 
was  a  "mighty  hunter."  It  is  said  that  in  one 
day's  hunt  he  slew  not  less  than  thirty  stags, 
bears,  and  wild  asses ;  and  in  archery  and  throw- 
ing the  lance,  he  excelled  all  the  youth  of  his 
generation.  In  stature  and  personal  appearance, 
he  was  superb.  Assassins  who  had  planned  to 
surprise  and  kill  him  in  the  bath,  fled  in  fright 
at  the  sight  of  his  unarmed  and  unclothed  majesty. 

His  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  were  not  less 
123 


124  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

unusual  than  his  physical  strength.  He  both 
loved  and  ill-treated  the  members  of  his  own 
family  with  the  same  passionate  intensity,  and 
his  crimes  against  them  were  followed  by  fits 
of  overwhelming  remorse.  In  spite  of  the  vice 
and  cruelty  of  his  later  years,  many  of  the  servants 
who  had  become  attached  to  him  in  his  youth 
were  faithful  to  him  throughout  his  entire  life. 
Among  them  was  his  private  secretary  and  con- 
stant companion,  Nicolaus  of  Damascus,  one  of 
the  foremost  scholars  of  the  age,  and  the  author 
of  a  world's  history  in  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four  volumes.  Other  scholars  gathered  about 
him  and  his  interest  in  Greek  culture  made  his 
court  a  center  of  Greek  learning  where  his  taste 
for  history  and  philosophy  were  gratified  by 
after  dinner  discussions  with  the  learned  men  of 
the  day.  Architecture  was  his  especial  delight, 
and,  beneath  his  generous  patronage,  master- 
pieces in  building  sprang  up  not  only  in  Palestine, 
but  in  many  cities  of  Asia  Minor  and  Greece. 

From  his  father  Antipater,  he  inherited  the 
qualities  which  had  made  the  latter  a  successful 
leader  of  men, — the  ability  to  discern  men's 
motives  and  presence  of  mind  to  use  them  to  his 
own  advantage.  Like  Antipater,  he  had  the  wisdom 
to  conciliate  where  he  could  not  compel,  to  win  by 
competent  service  and  faithful  friendship  where 
force  of  arms  would  have  been  useless.  But 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  125 

selfishness,  and  unrestrained  passion  lay  coiled 
like  twin  canker-worms  at  the  base  of  all  his 
budding  virtues,  all  the  more  gross  because  of 
the  very  vehemence  and  intensity  of  the  nature 
upon  which  they  fed.  Like  Esau,  he  sold  his 
spiritual  birth-right  for  a  mess  of  pottage,  the 
pottage  of  wealth,  power  and  fame. 

The  young  governor  of  Gallilee  found  his 
domain  infested  with  bands  of  Jewish  insurgents 
who  terrorized  the  border  villages  of  Syria  by 
their  lawless  incursions,  and  was  so  successful  in 
hunting  down  and  killing  the  brigands  that  ballads 
in  praise  of  his  courage  were  sung  throughout 
Syria.  But  in  Judea  his  daring  assumed  a  dif- 
ferent aspect.  The  court  of  Hyrcanus,  the  high 
priest,  was  thronged  with  weeping  mothers,  who 
begged  redress  for  sons  slain  without  a  trial  and 
without  a  sentence;  and  when,  at  length,  the 
robber  chief,  a  youth  of  noble  family,  was  sum- 
marily captured  and  killed,  Hyrcanus  was  obliged, 
though  much  against  his  will,  to  summon  his  friend 
Antipater's  son  before  the  Sanhedrin  to  answer 
for  his  life.  As  it  was  customary  for  the  accused 
to  appear  before  the  court  in  robes  of  mourning 
and  with  dishevelled  hair,  the  august  body  was 
hushed  into  silence  by  the  appearance  of  one  who 
entered  the  assembly  chamber  with  the  air  and 
bearing  of  a  young  prince.  Herod  was  clad  in 
purple,  and  his  long  black  hair  was  magnificently 


126  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

dressed.  He  was  accompanied  by  a  guard  of 
Roman  soldiers,  and  bore  a  message  from  Sextus 
Caesar,  legate  of  Syria,  commanding  his  acquittal. 
In  the  presence  of  such  boldness  and  splendor, 
only  one  member  of  the  council  had  the  courage 
to  speak.  Shammai,  a  Pharisee  of  high  repute, 
broke  the  silence  by  declaring  that  the  audacious 
demeanor  of  the  culprit  foreboded  evil  and  that 
his  fellow  councillors  would  one  day  answer  for 
their  neglect  with  their  lives,  should  they  fail  to 
punish  him,  a  warning  which  was  recalled  when 
Herod,  upon  becoming  King  of  Judea,  ordered 
the  execution  of  forty-five  leading  Sadducees,  all 
of  whom  were  probably  members  of  the  San- 
hedrin.  To  avert  the  impending  sentence  of 
death,  Hyrcanus  hastily  adjourned  the  assembly 
and  advised  the  culprit  to  leave  Jerusalem  with- 
out delay.  His  advice  was  taken,  but  Herod, 
with  characteristic  buoyancy,  soon  reappeared 
at  the  head  of  an  army  and  was  with  great  diffi- 
culty restrained  by  his  father  from  inflicting  a 
terrible  vengeance  upon  the  authors  of  his  indig- 
nity. Of  so  little  consequence  was  the  life  and 
authority  of  the  Jews  to  Rome  that  even  during 
his  trial,  the  offender  had  been  pronounced  ruler 
of  Coele-Syria  by  the  Roman  governor  of  Syria. 

In  B.  c.  44,  the  death  of  Caesar  threw  the 
Roman  Empire  into  confusion,  and  Cassius  came 
into  Syria  to  collect  an  army.  Antipater,  with 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  127 

Hyrcanus,  hastened  to  propitiate  the  murderer 
of  their  former  friend  and  patron  with  vast  sums 
of  money  wrung  from  the  citizens  of  Judea,  and 
four  cities  were  sold  into  slavery  because  they 
were  unable  to  pay  their  share  of  the  contribution. 
Antipater  enjoyed  the  patronage  for  which  he 
had  paid  this  heavy  price  only  a  year.  In  B.  c. 
43,  he  was  poisoned  by  a  rival,  Malichus,  and 
died  bequeathing  to  his  sons,  Thasael  and  Herod, 
not  only  the  government  of  Palestine,  but  also 
the  legacy  of  accumulated  hatred  and  distrust 
which  his  policy  had  inspired.  Jewish  uprisings 
in  Galilee  and  Jerusalem  followed  his  death,  and 
to  make  matters  worse,  a  delegation  of  Jews  had 
been  sent  to  Rome  to  bring  accusations  of  a  most 
serious  nature  against  Herod  and  Phasael. 

In  the  meantime,  the  kaleidoscope  of  Roman 
history  had  again  changed.  Cassius,  Brutus, 
and  Sextus  Caesar  had  been  swept  from  their 
high  places,  and  all  Asia  had  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  Mark  Antony,  the  boyhood  friend  of  Herod. 
When  Herod  appeared  to  defend  himself,  he 
found  in  the  Roman  ruler,  the  congenial  comrade 
of  his  younger  days,  a  friendship  doubtless 
reinforced  by  the  huge  bribes  with  which  the 
Edomite  had  learned  to  enlist  the  sympathy  of 
the  Romans.  The  aged  high  priest  Hyrcanus 
also  came  before  Antony  to  plead  the  cause  of 
his  friend  Antipater's  sons,  and  the  hearing  re- 


128  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

suited  in  the  complete  acquittal  of  the  two  offend- 
ers and  their  appointment  as  tetrachs  of  Judea. 

In  his  extreme  youth,  Herod  had  married  a 
woman  of  his  own  race,  Doris,  by  whom  he  had 
one  son,  Antipater;  but  the  romance  of  his  life 
was  his  love  for  the  beautiful  and  high-spirited 
Mariamne,  a  flower  that  had  bloomed  late  upon 
the  now  fast  withering  stalk  of  Asmon.  This 
princess,  the  grand-daughter  of  both  Hyrcanus 
and  Aristobulus,  united  in  herself  the  rival  claims 
of  the  two  branches  of  the  the  house  of  Asmon; 
and  as  the  hatred  of  the  Jews  for  Rome  and  its 
Idumean  supporters  and  their  undying  devotion 
to  the  Maccabean  family  was  a  danger  which, 
like  the  sword  suspended  by  a  single  hair  above 
the  head  of  Damocles,  constantly  threatened  to 
fall  upon  Herod  and  destroy  him,  a  union  with 
this  descendant  of  the  Maccabees  was  a  matter 
of  policy  as  well  as  love. 

The  betrothal  had  not  long  taken  place  when 
events  occurred  by  which  it  was  to  be  indefinitely 
prolonged.  Antigonus,  the  only  remaining  son 
of  the  lamented  captive  king  Aristobulus,  had 
long  desired  to  fan  the  smouldering  embers  of 
Jewish  patriotism  into  a  flame.  He  found  the 
opportunity  he  sought  in  an  alliance  with  the 
hordes  of  Parthians  who  had  descended  upon 
Asia,  and  were  now  sweeping  everything  before 
them,  and  promised  the  Parthian  king  a  thousand 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  129 

talents  in  gold  and  five  hundred  of  the  fairest 
Jewish  maidens  if  he  would  restore  to  him  the 
kingdom  of  his  fathers. 

'His  offer  was  accepted.  Multitudes  of  Par- 
thians  entered  Judea  and  surrounded  Jerusalem; 
Hyrcanus  and  Phasael  were  decoyed  into  the 
Parthian  camp  and  taken  prisoners;  Mark  Antony 
was  detained  in  Egypt  by  the  wiles  of  Cleopatra; 
and  Herod  must  face  innumerable  Parthians  and 
his  own  hostile  subjects  alone.  Resistance  could 
result  only  in  ruin  and  disaster,  and  flight,  encum- 
bered with  the  defenseless  women  whom  he  could 
not  leave  exposed  to  the  barbarity"  of  the  invad- 
ers, was  equally  perilous.  Yet  he  resolved  with- 
out hesitation  upon  the  latter,  and  in  the  dead  of 
night  with  a  caravan  of  weeping  charges,  his 
affianced  bride  and  the  women  and  children  of 
his  own  family,  he  started  upon  that  journey 
whose  thrilling  adventures  and  desperate  chances 
were  so  often  recalled  during  the  security  of  his 
later  life.  Sixty  furlongs  from  Jerusalem  he 
was  attacked  by  hostile  Jews  and  fought  hand 
to  hand  for  his  life  in  an  encounter  so  fierce  that 
it  was  commemorated  by  the  palace  and  city 
of  Herodium,  which  he  built  years  after,  upon 
the  scene  of  the  conflict;  and  again  when  the 
delay  occasioned  by  an  overturned  wagon  im- 
perilled the  safety  of  his  party,  he  became  des- 
perate and  was  dissuaded  with  difficulty  from  tak- 


130  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

ing  his  life  with  his  own  hands.  In  spite  of  the 
frequent  skirmishes  and  difficulties  of  the  way, 
the  caravan  finally  reached  Idumea  in  safety, 
and  the  women  and  children  were  left  at  the 
rock-bound  fortress  of  Masada  with  Herod^s 
brother  Joseph.  But  his  own  journey  was  still 
unended.  He  must  seek  the  aid  of  friends  more 
powerful  than  himself.  From  the  court  of  the 
Arabian  king,  whence  he  was  driven  as  a  fugi- 
tive, he  hastened  to  Egypt,  where  he  received 
the  aid  and  escaped  the  web  of  Cleopatra ;  thence 
he  sailed  through  storm  and  shipwreck  to  Rome ; 
and  again  he  was  cordially  received  and  saved 
from  ruin  by  his  old  friend  Antony.  He  entered 
the  Roman  Senate  a  fugitive  and  an  outcast,  to 
beg  that  the  sovereignity  of  Judea  might  be 
bestowed  upon  the  younger  brother  of  Mariamne ; 
he  left  the  senate  chamber  walking  between  An- 
tony and  Octavius,  the  acknowledged  King  of 
the  Jews. 

When  Herod  returned  to  Judea  he  found 
Antigonus  established  as  high  priest  and  king, 
and  the  "King  of  the  Jews"  was  obliged  to  fight 
three  years  before  he  could  take  possession  of 
the  kingdom  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  Roman 
Senate.  He  learned  that  Phasael  had  dashed 
his  brains  out  in  prison  after  the  joyful  news  of 
his  brother's  escape  had  been  brought  to  him,  and 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  131 

Hyrcanus  had  been  carried  away  into  captiv- 
ity by  the  Parthians.  The  fortress  Masada, 
which  was  still  occupied  by  the  women  and 
children  Herod  had  rescued  from  the  invaders, 
was  besieged  by  Antigonus  and  must  be  relieved; 
the  rocky  caves  of  Galilee  must  again  be  freed 
from  his  old  enemies  the  brigands ;  and  the  Roman 
legates,  who  had  been  bribed  by  Antigonus,  must 
be  conciliated.  It  was  consequently  not  until 
the  spring  of  B.  c.  37,  after  many  adventures 
and  hair-breadth  escapes,  that  he  had  conquered 
all  Palestine  except  its  capital  and  was  ready  to 
undertake  the  siege  of  Jerusalem.  After  the 
battering-rams  had  been  placed,  Sosius  came  to 
his  aid  with  a  Roman  army,  and  he  felt  so  assured 
of  his  success  that  before  the  siege  commenced 
he  went  to  Samaria,  where  he  celebrated  his 
marriage  with  Mariamne,  to  whom  he  had  been 
engaged  five  years. 

After  a  siege  of  three  months,  the  fortress 
fell  as  it  had  fallen  twenty-six  years  before,  upon 
the  Sabbath,  and  Herod  entered  his  capital  amid 
plunder  and  frightful  cruelty  which  spared  neither 
age  nor  sex. 

Antigonus  hastened  from  the  citadel,  and 
throwing  himself  at  the  feet  of  Sosius,  begged 
him  with  tears  to  spare  his  life;  but  the  hard- 
hearted Roman,  thinking  a  woman's  name  more 


132  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

suitable  than  a  man's  for  one  who  displayed  such 
effeminate  weakness,  replied  with  scornful  laugh- 
ter, "Arise,  Antigone,"  and  ordered  him  bound. 

Either  because  he  wished  to  spare  his  subjects 
or  because  he  did  not  wish  to  incur  the  financial 
loss  of  a  plundered  capital,  Herod  allayed  the 
bitter  enmity  of  the  Romans  with  many  and  rich 
gifts,  and  persuaded  them  to  vacate  Jerusalem; 
but  the  spark  of  kindly  feeling  generated  by  his 
preservation  of  Jewish  life  and  property  was 
completely  extinguished  by  the  barbarity  with 
which  he  commenced  his  reign.  Forty-five  of 
Antigonus'  adherents  were  executed;  the  royal 
jewels  and  the  property  of  wealthy  citizens  were 
confiscated,  and  handed  over  to  Antony.  Even 
the  coffins  of  the  dead  were  searched  that  no 
hidden  treasure  might  escape.  The  flood  of 
Jewish  hatred  rose  so  high  that  the  author  of 
these  atrocities  dared  not  keep  Antigonus  to 
adorn  the  triumph  of  Antony,  but  had  him  taken 
to  Antioch,  where  he  was  the  first  prince  of  royal 
blood  to  be  beaten  and  beheaded  by  the  Romans 
like  a  common  criminal. 

To  appease  the  people,  the  aged  Hyrcanus 
was  recalled  from  exile  and  made  the  recipient 
of  many  honors.  Before  his  deportation,  his 
nephew  Antigonus  had  taken  the  precaution  to 
remove  his  ears  that  he  might  be  forever  barred 
from  the  office  of  high  priest  by  physical  disfig- 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  133 

urement,  and  Hananiel,  an  obscure  priest  of  the 
Babylonian  colony,  was  thereupon  appointed  to 
take  his  place. 

Besides  Hyrcanus,  there  still  survived  three 
descendants  of  the  Maccabees;  his  daughter, 
Alexandra,  an  ambitious  woman  who  had  never 
become  reconciled  to  the  fallen  fortunes  of  her 
house,  and  whose  restless  scheming  did  much  to 
bring  about  its  ruin;  and  her  two  children, 
iMariamne,  the  beautiful  wife  of  Herod,  and 
Aristobulus  the  last  male  representative  of  his 
house  and  the  pride  of  his  mother  and  sister. 
All  the  beauty  and  nobility  of  the  original 
Maccabees  lived  again  in  Alexandra's  children; 
and  when  the  high-priesthood  was  bestowed  upon 
Hananiel,  both  Mariamne  and  her  mother  felt 
that  Aristobulus  had  been  slighted  and  made 
every  possible  effort  to  secure  the  office  for  this 
last  scion  of  their  house.  Alexandra  begged  her 
friend  Cleopatra  to  use  her  influence  with  the 
all-powerful  Antony,  and  Mariamne  added  her 
entreaties  to  those  of  her  mother;  Herod  yielded 
and  the  sixteen-year  old  boy  first  performed  the 
duties  of  his  holy  office  in  B.C.  35  at  the  Feast 
of  Tabernacles,  the  most  joyous  festival  of  the 
Jewish  year.  When  the  assembled  people  saw 
the  young  prince,  his  beauty,  his  impressive 
stature,  and  noble  bearing,  enhanced  by  the 
gorgeous  robes  of  office  which  he  wore,  he  was 


134  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

in  face  and  form  so  like  the  lamented  princes 
who  had  preceded  him  that  their  enthusiasm 
could  not  be  restrained,  and  word  flew  from 
mouth  to  mouth  that  an  Asmonean  monarch 
might  yet  become  the  King  of  the  Jews. 

As  a  fitting  close  to  the  festal  occasion,  Alex- 
andra entertained  the  king  and  the  boy  high 
priest  at  her  castle  in  Jericho.  The  day  was 
sultry,  and  the  guests  cooled  themselves  by 
bathing  in  the  ponds  which  beautified  the  grounds 
about  the  palace.  Aristobulus  was  urged  by  his 
brother-in-law  to  join  in  the  sport,  for  among  the 
bathers  were  those  who  understood  Herod's 
wishes.  Until  evening,  the  boy  priest  gambolled 
in  the  water  with  the  other  guests.  Then  under 
cover  of  the  growing  darkness,  he  was  drawn 
beneath  the  waves  as  if  in  play.  They  closed 
above  him,  and  before  his  release,  life  had  been 
extinguished.  News  of  his  death  ran  like  wild- 
fire through  Jerusalem,  and  the  whole  city  was 
immersed  in  grief.  Alexandra,  in  her  despair, 
threatened  to  take  her  own  life,  and  in  the  life 
of  Mariamne  a  double  tragedy  was  enacted. 
In  spite  of  her  finer  nature  which  the  rough 
Idumean  could  neither  understand  nor  appre- 
ciate, he  had  taken  her  heart  by  storm.  Now 
the  form  of  the  dead  boy  rose  like  an  accusing 
ghost  between  them.  The  waves  which  had 
extinguished  the  life  of  the  young  prince  had 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  135 

quenched  the  fire  upon  the  king's  hearthstone. 
Mariamne's  love  for  Herod  had  died  with  Aris- 
tobulus.  The  author  of  all  this  misery  shed 
genuine  tears  when  he  beheld  the  dead  face,  so 
like  that  of  his  beautiful  wife,  and  tried  in  vain 
to  allay  her  grief  by  a  magnificent  funeral. 

Danger  and  disaster  now  thickened  about  his 
pathway.  Alexandra  plotted  ceaselessly  to  de- 
prive him  of  his  throne;  Cleopatra  became  his 
enemy;  Antony,  upon  whom  his  security  de- 
pended, was  defeated  and  killed  in  the  battle  of 
Actium,  and  the  favor  of  Augustus  was  still  an 
uncertainty.  "Like  a  hunted  animal  turned  to 
bay,  his  passions  became  fiercer,  his  methods 
more  desperate."  The  insignificant  and  dis- 
figured Hyrcanus,  who  in  a  moment  of  weakness 
had  listened  to  the  voice  of  his  scheming 
daughter,  now  became  an  object  of  suspicion, 
and  at  the  age  of  eighty,  was  tried  and  con- 
demned to  death. 

Mariamne's  coldness  only  increased  the  pas- 
sionate devotion  of  her  husband.  When  he  was 
summoned  to  Rome  to  answer  for  the  life  of 
Aristobulus,  he  could  not  bear  the  thought  that 
should  he  never  return,  she  might  become  the 
wife  of  another.  He  therefore  entrusted  her 
to  the  care  of  his  uncle  Joseph  whom  he  com- 
manded to  kill  her  immediately  in  case  of  his 
own  death.  The  secret  was  revealed  to  Mari- 


136  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

amne  by  Joseph,  and  Herod,  upon  his  return, 
was  received  with  growing  aversion.  A  second 
time  the  Idumean  half- Jew  was  obliged  to  leave 
Jerusalem  to  secure  the  favor  and  goodwill  of 
Augustus;  and  again  Mariamne  learned  from 
her  attendant  that  his  love  for  her  had  been 
manifested  in  the  same  peculiar  way.  During 
this  absence,  Augustus  made  Herod  the  recip- 
ient of  especial  favors.  He  restored  to  him 
the  district  around  Jericho  which  had  been  taken 
from  him  by  Cleopatra,  and  seven  other  cities 
of  Palestine  were  annexed  to  his  kingdom;  but 
when  he  returned,  radiant  with  triumph,  and 
wished  to  share  his  good  fortune  with  Mariamne, 
she  expressed  positive  resentment  at  his  success; 
and  he  who  had  commanded  the  friendship  of 
the  Roman  rulers  of  the  world  was  powerless  in 
the  presence  of  his  own  wife. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  gratifying  to 
Cypros  and  Salome,  the  mother  and  sister  of 
Herod,  than  the  growing  breach  between  Mari- 
amne and  himself.  The  unconcealed  contempt 
of  the  Jewish  princess  for  the  Idumean  descent 
of  these  ladies  had  long  provoked  their  fury, 
and  the  dignified  silence  with  which  she  re- 
sponded to  their  coarse  abuse  was  more  irri- 
tating than  any  words  she  could  have  uttered. 
Salome  goaded  Herod,  already  incensed  by  his 
wife's  indifference,  to  a  blind  fury,  by  hinting 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  137 

that  infidelity  was  the  cause  of  Mariamne's 
coldness.  To  add  fuel  to  the  fire  of  his  jealous 
distrust,  she  poisoned  the  wine  which  the  queen 
prepared  daily,  and  bribed  the  royal  cup-bearer 
to  accuse  Mariamne  of  the  crime.  The  cease- 
less persecution  was  continued  until  Herod 
was  convinced  of  his  wife's  guilt,  and  Mariamne 
was  tried  and  condemned  as  a  result  of  the  false 
charges  brought  against  her. 

Friendless  and  alone,  deserted  even  by  her 
cowardly  and  selfish  mother,  who  reproached  her 
on  the  way  to  the  block  as  the  cause  of  all  her 
family's  woes,  the  Jewish  princess  met  her  death 
with  splendid  courage.  She  did  not  utter  a  word 
of  complaint  or  fear,  her  color  did  not  change, 
but  "she  died  as  she  had  lived,  a  true  Maccabee." 

When  Herod  awoke  from  his  fit  of  insane 
rage  to  find  he  had  deprived  himself  of  the  being 
he  loved  best,  his*  grief  and  remorse  knew  no 
bounds.  He  tried  to  drown  his  sorrow  in  ex- 
cesses, prolonged  drinking  and  hunting  bouts. 
He  sought  in  vain  to  console  himself  with  the 
pretext  that  his  loved  one  had  not  passed  beyond 
the  sound  of  his  voice.  His  servants  were  for- 
bidden to  speak  of  her  death,  and  the  house- 
hold was  conducted  as  if  she  still  occupied  her 
apartments  in  the  palace.  At  length  even  his 
great  strength  gave  way  under  the  prodigious 
strain  on  mind  and  body,  and  he  lay  ill  for 


138  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

months  in  Samaria,  the  scene  of  his  early  married 
life.  The  soliloquy  of  Herod's  physician  as  he 
looks  upon  the  stricken  form  of  the  unhappy 
king  is  reproduced  in  Stephen  Phillips'  Herod: 

Rest,   and   a  world   of  leaves  and  stealing  stream 
Or  solemn  swoon  of  music  may  allure 
Homeward  the  ranging  spirit  of  the  king. 
These  things  avail ;  but  these  are  things  of  men. 
To  me  indeed  it  seems,  who  with  dim  eyes 
Behold  this  Herod  motionless  and  mute, 
To  me  it  seems  that  they  who  grasp  the  world, 
The  kingdom  and  the  power  and  the  glory, 
Must  pay  with  deepest  misery  of  spirit, 
Atoning  unto  God  for  a  brief  brightness, 
And  ever  ransom,  like  this  rigid  king, 
The  outward  victory  with  inward  loss. 

Herod  was  roused  from  his  despondency  by 
the  news  that  Alexandra  plotted  to  steal  his 
throne,  and  the  scheming  que^n  was  at  last  con- 
demned to  the  fate  she  had  long  deserved.  The 
most  brilliant  period  of  his  reign  followed  her 
death,  but  the  loss  of  Mariamne  had  left  an  in- 
effaceable impression  upon  mind  and  body.  He 
sought  oblivion  in  polygamy  and  nine  wives 
became  inmates  of  his  home.  Two  sons  re- 
sembling their  dead  mother  in  face  and  bearing 
still  remained  to  him.  They  were  carefully  ed- 
ucated at  Rome  and  brilliant  marriages  were 
arranged  for  them  that  their  father's  high  hopes 
for  their  future  might  be  fulfilled.  But  when 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  139 

they  returned  from  Italy  to  the  polluted  atmos- 
phere of  that  crime-stained  home  they  could 
never  forget  that  their  father  had  consented  to 
their  mother's  execution.  With  her  beauty, 
they  had  inherited  her  high  spirit  and  her  aver- 
sion for  their  Idumean  relatives.  They  ridi- 
culed the  senile  vanity  of  the  old  king,  and  when 
they  saw  the  inferior  wives  who  had  succeeded 
their  mother  wearing  her  gowns,  they  openly 
boasted  that  they  would  one  day  make  these  fine 
ladies  wear  sackcloth  instead.  Their  impru- 
dence roused  the  suspicion  of  Herod  and  in- 
volved them  in  endless  quarrels  with  Salome  and 
their  wicked  elder  brother,  Antipater,  whose 
poisonous  influence  increased  the  bitter  resent- 
ment of  their  unhappy  father.  Quarrels  and 
reconciliations  followed  each  other  in  rapid  suc- 
cession for  eleven  years.  Then  the  pride  and 
affection  of  Herod  gave  way  before  the  charge 
of  treason  brought  against  his  sons  by  the  mis- 
chief-makers, and  just  thirty  years  from  the  date 
of  Mariamne's  marriage,  her  sons  were  con- 
demned and  strangled  at  Samaria,  where  her 
wedding  had  taken  place. 

In  B.  c.  4,  the  wicked  old  king,  steeped  in  lust 
and  cruelty,  hated  by  his  subjects  and  distrusted 
by  the  members  of  his  own  family,  became  the 
victim  of  a  foul  distemper,  and  the  sulphur  baths 
of  Callirrhoe  afforded  him  no  rtlief.  When  all 


140  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

hope  of  his  recovery  had  been  relinquished,  he 
commanded  that  the  most  distinguished  men  of 
the  nation  be  shut  up  in  the  arena  and  cut  down 
on  the  day  of  his  death.  Thus  only  could  he 
hope  that  real  lamentation  would  occur  at  his 
own  funeral.  Unloved  and  unmourned,  he  died 
at  Jericho,  the  sad  wreck  of  what  he  might 
have  been,  and  his  body  was  borne  to  Herodium 
for  interment. 

The  tempestuous  tragedy  of  Herod  and  Mari- 
amne,  vivid  with  its  lightning  flashes  of  love, 
jealousy,  hatred  and  remorse,  has  been  made  the 
subject  of  plays  and  poems,  but  none  perhaps 
more  true  to  its  real  spirit  than  "Herod's  La- 
ment for  Mariamne,"  in  which  Lord  Byron  de- 
picts the  distracted  king  pacing  the  corridors  of 
the  desolated  castle  at  Samaria  forever  haunted 
by  the  beauty  and  innocence  of  his  murdered 
wife. 

Oh  Mariamne!  now  for  thee 

The  heart  for  which  thou  bled'st  is  bleeding; 

Revenge  is  lost  in  agony 

And  wild  remorse  to  rage  succeeding. 

Oh  Mariamne!   where  art  thou? 

Thou  canst  not  hear  my  bitter  pleading; 

Ah !  couldst  thou — thou  wouldst  pardon  now, 

Though  Heaven  were  to  my  prayer  unheeding. 

And  is  she  dead? — and  did  they  dare 
Obey  my  frenzy's  jealous  raving? 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  141 

My  wrath  but  doomed  my  own  despair; 

The  sword  that  smote  her  's  o'er  me  waving,— 

But  thou  art  cold,  my  murdered  love! 

And  this  dark  heart  is  vainly  craving 

For  her  who  soars  alone  above, 

And  leaves  my  soul  unworthy  saving. 

She's  gone  who  shared  my  diadem, 
She  sank,  with  her  my  joys  entombing; 
I  swept  that  flower  from  Judah's  stem 
Whose  leaves  for  me  alone  were  blooming ; 
And  mine's  the  guilt  and  mine's  the  hell 
This  bosom's  desolation  dooming; 
And  I  have  earned  those  tortures  well, 
Which  unconsumed  are  still  consuming. 

The  turbulent  discontent  which  was  partially 
concealed  by  the  outward  brilliance  and  pros- 
perity of  Herod's  reign,  was  prevented  from 
bursting  into  open  rebellion  only  by  the  stringent 
rule  of  the  old  king.  A  large  army  of  mercen- 
aries and  strong  garrisons  scattered  throughout 
Palestine,  kept  the  dissatisfied  populace  in  sub- 
jection; and  when  in  the  latter  period  of  his  reign, 
more  severe  action  became  necessary,  a  ban  was 
placed  upon  assemblies;  even  loitering  upon  the 
street  was  forbidden,  and  the  spies  of  the  hated 
Idumean  went  constantly  to  and  fro  among  the 
people,  he  himself  sometimes  masquerading 
among  them  in  the  dress  of  a  common  citizen. 

Yet  many  of  his  measures  contributed  to  the 
safety  and  welfare  of  his  subjects.  Galilee,  for- 


142  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

merly  the  hiding-place  of  brigands,  was  colon- 
ized; travel  and  commerce  was  protected,  an3 
the  buildings  erected  by  him  were  many  of  them 
useful  as  well  as  beautiful.  He  even  made  spas- 
modic attempts  to  win  the  good  will  of  his  sub- 
jects, twice  remitting  a  large  fraction  of  the 
heavy  taxes  by  which  they  were  oppressed,  and 
in  time  of  famine  selling  the  plate  from  his  own 
table  that  he  might  relieve  their  distress. 

In  Pharisaism,  with  which  he  had  no  real  sym- 
pathy, he  recognized  a  power  which  could  not  be 
crushed,  and  consequently  rendered  an  insincere 
homage  to  the  religious  scruples  of  the  sect. 
None  of  the  statues  repugnant  to  the  Jews  were 
placed  upon  any  of  the  public  buildings  erected 
by  him  in  Jerusalem;  he  made  no  attempt  to 
enter  the  inner  court  of  the  temple  forbidden  to 
Gentiles;  and  the  Pharisees,  who  boldly  refused 
to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Roman  em- 
peror and  himself,  were  excused  from  punish- 
ment. But  the  milder  features  of  his  reign  did 
not  counteract  the  despotism  with  which  he  di- 
vested the  Sanhedrin  of  all  real  power  and  ap- 
pointed and  removed  high  priests  at  will;  or  his 
preference  for  pagan  surroundings  and  the  men 
of  Greek  culture,  upon  whom  he  conferred  the 
public  offices  of  his  kingdom,  openly  boasting  that 
he  was  more  nearly  related  to  the  Greeks  than 
to  the  Jews. 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  143 

Herod  worshipped  no  God  save  his  own  am- 
bition, and  the  power  of  Rome.  To  the  latter, 
he  yielded  implicit  obedience.  Even  when  he 
was  compelled  by  Antony  to  bestow  the  fair  and 
fertile  region  about  Jericho  with  its  balsams  and 
palm  trees  upon  Cleopatra,  he  paid  taxes  upon 
his  own  land  without  complaint;  and  when  the 
Egyptian  queen  came  to  inspect  his  gift,  she  was 
cordially  received  and  royally  entertained.  His 
friendship  and  admiration  for  the  Romans  was 
quite  sincere,  and  his  relations  with  Augustus 
and  Agrippa  were  so  intimate  that  his  flatterers 
affirmed  that  "Herod  was  dearest  to  Augustus 
next  to  Agrippa  and  to  Agrippa  next  to 
Augustus." 

He  adopted  the  Greek  customs  and  forms  of 
culture  affected  by  his  Roman  friends,  and  votive 
offerings  to  the  Roman  emperors  transformed 
the  face  of  Palestine.  Roman  baths,  fountains, 
gymnasiums,  and  amphitheatres  were  built  in 
Jerusalem  and  many  other  cities  of  Judea;  the 
games  distasteful  to  the  Jews  were  celebrated 
every  fourth  year  in  honor  of  the  Roman  em- 
peror; Samaria  was  rebuilt  and  named  Sebaste 
"the  August"  in  hon'or  of  Augustus,  Herod's  pa- 
tron; and  like  Augustus,  the  "King  of  the  Jews" 
"found  brick  and  left  marble"  in  his  capital.  In 
B.  c.  24,  he  erected  in  Jerusalem  a  beautiful 
palace  of  marble  and  gold  for  himself.  Three 


144  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

massive  towers  whose  bases,  built  from  huge 
blocks  of  smooth  stone,  rendered  them  almost 
invincible,  rose  from  its  walls;  of  these,  one  was 
named  for  his  friend  Hippicus,  one  for  his  favor- 
ite brother  Phasael,  and  one,  the  most  costly 
and  richly  ornamented  of  the  three,  for  his  best- 
loved  wife,  Mariamne. 

A  yet  more  ambitious  undertaking  was  the 
founding  of  the  seaport  Caesarea  at  the  base  of 
the  ancient  Straton's  tower.  Its  harbor  was  pro- 
tected by  a  powerful  breakwater,  and  a  great 
temple  to  Augustus,  which  could  be  seen  far  out 
upon  the  Mediterranean,  overlooked  the  smaller 
houses  of  shining  marble  by  which  it  was  sur- 
rounded. Twelve  years  were  occupied  in  build- 
ing this  city,  which  at  a  later  date  quite  outshone 
Jerusalem  and  was  made  the  capitol  of  Judea. 

The  members  of  Herod's  own  family  were  also 
honored  with  costly  and  lasting  memorials. 
Where  Capharsaba  had  stood,  rose  the  city  of 
Antipatris  in  honor  of  his  father;  at  Jericho,  a 
newly  erected  citadel  bore  the  name  of  his  mother 
Cypros ;  and  north  of  Jericho,  a  city  named  Phas- 
aelis  for  his  best-loved  brother,  sprang  into  exis- 
tence. On  the  spot  where  his  desperate  conflict 
with  the  Jews  had  occurred  when  he  fled  from 
Parthian  invaders,  he  built  a  fortress  named 
Herodium,  which  contained  beautiful  apartments 
for  his  own  use,  and  another  fortress  in  the 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  145 

mountainous  region  toward  Arabia  also  bore  his 
name.  The  strongholds  of  Judea  were  fortified 
afresh,  and  in  the  non-Jewish  cities  of  Palestine 
and  nearer  Spain,  he  erected  heathen  temples 
which  he  dedicated  to  the  Roman  emperors. 
But  the  results  of  Herod's  passion  for  building 
extended  far  beyond  the  boundaries  of  Palestine, 
even  to  Athens  and  Lacedaemonia,  for  in  many 
of  the  cities  through  which  he  travelled,  he  left 
baths,  colonnades,  fountains,  and  public  build- 
ings, as  proofs  of  his  interest  and  generosity. 

Partly  to  gratify  his  own  ambition,  and  partly 
to  conciliate  the  people  he  governed,  Herod 
began  in  B.  c.  20  the  greatest  and  most  mag- 
nificent of  all  his  public  works,  the  construction  of 
a  temple  so  beautiful  that  "he  who  has  not  seen 
Herod's  building  has  never  seen  anything  beauti- 
ful" was  a  common  saying  among  the  Jews. 
When  his  plan  was  first  made  known  to  his  sub- 
jects, his  unsavory  reputation  and  the  sacred 
character  of  the  edifice  with  which  he  wished  to 
tamper  presented  objections  which  were  not 
easily  overcome.  The  oral  tradition  prescribed 
that  an  old  synagogue  must  not  be  destroyed  until 
a  new  one  had  been  built  to  take  its  place,  and  the 
scribes  declared  that  the  same  rule  must  be  ob- 
served in  regard  to  the  temple.  This  hindrance 
was  obliterated  by  the  wily  suggestion  of  an  old 
Rabbi  whose  counsel  Herod  sought.  He  saw  a 


146  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

breach  in  the  building  which  made  its  repair 
necessary,  and  the  entire  process  of  reconstruc- 
tion was  carried  on  under  the  pretext  of  needed 
repairs.  Not  once  was  the  worship  of  the 
people  interrupted,  and  the  religious  scruples  of 
the  Pharisees  were  respected  by  Herod  in  every 
way.  Among  the  ten  thousand  laborers  em- 
ployed in  the  work  were  a  thousand  priests  who 
had  been  trained  as  masons  and  carpenters  that 
the  more  sacred  parts  of  the  edifice  might  not 
be  touched  by  profane  hands;  and  the  enormous 
stones  of  which  the  building  was  to  be  composed 
were  dragged  to  the  top  of  the  mountain  by  a 
thousand  wagons.  The  temple  itself  was 
finished  in  eighteen  months,  but  the  forecourts 
were  not  entirely  completed  until  thirty  years 
after  the  crucifixion. 

The  difficulty  of  placing  an  enclosure  which 
was  to  accomodate  210,000  people  upon  the 
somewhat  narrow  summit  of  the  Temple  Mount 
was  very  great,  although  its  area  had  already 
been  much  enlarged  by  the  Asmonean  kings. 
Sub-structures  of  solid  masonry  supported  the 
still  more  extensive  courts  of  the  new  temple, 
and  a  terraced  plateau,  rectangular  in  shape, 
crowned  the  Temple  Mount.  The  temple  proper 
stood  in  the  north-western  and  highest  portion  of 
the  plateau,  whose  sides  measuring  927  feet  were 
outlined  by  massive  castellated  walls  which  rose 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  147 

almost  perpendicular  with  the  steeply  sloping 
sides  of  the  mountain  to  a  height  of  one  hundred 
or  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  Within  these 
surrounding  walls  were  piazzas  or  covered  prom- 
enades, the  most  ornate  and  beautiful  of  all  the 
temple  structures.  They  were  paved  with  mosa- 
ics and  their  roofs  of  richly  carved  woods  were 
supported  by  rows  of  graceful  pillars.  The 
most  beautiful  of  these  promenades  was  the 
southern;  the  most  ancient,  Solomon's  porch  on 
the  east.  From  the  covered  colonnades  one 
might  pass  into  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles,  where 
stood  the  space  rented  by  the  priests  to  the 
money-changers,  the  cattle-dealers,  and  the  sellers 
of  pigeons,  twice  driven  from  the  temple  by  our 
Lord.  On  the  inner  boundary  of  the  Court  of 
the  Gentiles  rose  the  low  wall  beyond  which  no 
foreigner  might  pass.  It  was  placarded  with 
warning  inscriptions,  one  of  which,  discovered  in 
1871,  reads  as  follows: 

No  stranger  is  to  enter  within  the  balustrade  round 
the  Temple  and  enclosure.  Whoever  is  caught,  will  be 
responsible  to  himself  for  his  death,  which  will  ensue. 

Above  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles  rose  three 
terraces,  the  lowest  of  which  was  occupied  by  the 
Court  of  the  Women,  the  second  by  the  Court 
of  the  Men  and  the  Court  of  the  Priests,  and  the 
third  and  highest  by  the  temple  proper.  The 
Court  of  the  Women  contained  besides  the  two 


148  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

galleries  set  apart  for  women,  thirteen  alms- 
boxes,  shaped  like  inverted  trumpets,  also  recep- 
tacles for  wood,  oil,  wine,  salt  and  other  articles 
used  by  the  priests  when  preparing  the  sacrifices. 
On  festal  occasions,  it  was  lighted  by  the  two 
great  chandeliers  which  commemorated  the  pillar 
of  fire  by  which  the  children  of  Israel  were  led 
through  the  wilderness  and  beneath  which  Christ 
stood  when  he  said,  "I  am  the  light  of  the 
world."  The  Court  of  the  Men  was  separated 
from  the  Court  of  the  Priests  by  a  low  rail  over 
which  the  people  might  see  the  laver,  the  great 
brazen  altar  upon  which  the  sacrifices  were  off- 
ered, and  the  door  which  opened  into  the  "Cham- 
ber of  Squares, "  the  assembly-room  of  the  San- 
hedrin.  These  courts  were  entered  through  huge 
gates,  profusely  ornamented  with  plates  of  gold 
and  silver,  of  which  the  eastern,  or  "Gate  Beauti- 
ful" sometimes  called  Nicanor's  gate,  was  most 
generally  used.  It  was  covered  with  Corinthian 
brass  and  so  massive  that  to  close  and  bar  it, 
twenty  men  must  be  employed  each  evening. 

The  temple  proper  was  built  from  a  white 
limestone  which  resembled  marble.  It  was 
adorned  with  shining  plates  of  gold,  and  its  roof 
bristled  with  rows  of  golden  spikes.  Its  porch 
was  beautified  by  the  golden  vine,  emblematic  of 
Palestine,  to  which  each  pilgrim  added  a  grape 
or  cluster  of  gold.  Within  was  the  Holy  Place 


HEROD  THE  GREAT  149 

and  the  mysterious  Holy  of  Holies,  separated 
from  each  other  by  a  curtain  of  Babylonian  tap- 
estry; the  former  containing  the  table  of  shew- 
bread,  and  the  golden  candlestick  with  seven 
branches ;  the  latter  entirely  empty  except  for  the 
stone  on  which  the  high  priest  laid  his  censer. 

The  pride  of  the  Jews  in  the  magnificent  struc- 
ture is  reflected  in  the  following  eulogy  by  Jose- 
phus: 

"Now  the  outward  face  of  the  temple  in  its 
front  wanted  nothing  that  was  likely  to  surprise 
either  men's  minds  or  their  eyes;  for  it  was  cov- 
ered all  over  with  plates  of  gold  of  great  weight 
and  at  the  first  rising  of  the  sun  reflected  back 
a  very  fiery  splendor,  and  made  those  who  forced 
themselves  to  look  upon  it  to  turn  their  eyes  away, 
just  as  they  would  have  done  at  the  sun's  own 
rays.  But  this  temple  appeared  to  strangers, 
when  they  were  at  a  distance,  like  a  mountain 
covered  with  snow,  for,  as  to  those  parts  of  it 
that  were  not  gilt,  they  were  exceeding  white." 

Forty  days  before  the  death  of  Herod,  if  the 
date  assigned  by  modern  critics  to  the  birth  of 
our  Saviour  is  correct,*  the  uneasy  mind  of  the 

*The  date  of  Christ's  birth  is  uncertain.  Hastings  reckon- 
ing from  Herod's  death  in  4  B.  C.,  which  according  to  Matthew, 
took  place  not  long  after  Christ's  birth,  and  from  John  II,  20, 
probably  uttered  in  the  second  year  of  Christ's  ministry  when 
he  was  thirty-one  years  of  age,  fixes  upon  5  B.  c.  as  a  probable 
date.  The  Brittanica  puts  the  date  still  earlier  in  7-6  B.  c. 
Varying  dates  anywhere  from  7-2  B.C.  are  suggested  by  other 
authorities. 


150  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

old  king  was  troubled  by  vague  rumors  of  a  por- 
tentous star  in  the  east,  and  of  wise  men  and 
shepherds  worshipping  at  the  shrine  of  a  won- 
derful child-king ;  and  lest  the  new-comer  become 
the  possessor  of  the  splendor  upon  which  he  had 
lavished  untiring  energy,  he  issued  a  decree 
that  all  the  babes  in  his  kingdom  under  two  years 
of  age  be  put  to  death.  It  was  indeed  true  that 
the  Palestine  beautified  by  Herod  was  to  be  the 
home  of  a  King  far  greater  than  any  other  who 
ever  reigned  upon  this  earth,  and  that  the  great- 
est work  of  the  Idumean  king  was  to  be'  immor- 
talized by  the  words  and  deeds  of  Ofte  who  was 
soon  to  tread  its  courts.  In  the  kingdom  of 
Herod,  not  long  after  his  death,  was  to  be  en- 
acted a  scene  of  unutterable  pathos,  the  coming 
of  the  long-awaited  Saviour  to  a  people  upon  a 
road  so  clouded'  with  the  dust  of  their  own  near- 
sighted sophistry  and  self-satisfaction  and  so 
noisy  with  the  blatant  rumbling  of  their  own 
carnal  ideals  that  they  could  not  see  His  beauty 
nor  hear  the  voice  of  Jehovah  in  the  words  He 
uttered.  Yet  there  were  a  few  simple  and  sincere 
souls,  a  Nathanael,  a  Mary,  a  Lazarus,  who  be- 
held Him  with  clear  eyes,  and  believed  that  "In 
Him  was  life;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men.*' 


PART  IV 
DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  CANON  AND 
THE  TALMUD 

When  the  children  of  Israel  emerge  from  the 
dimly  lighted  centuries  of  Apocryphal  history 
into  the  clear  day  of  the  New  Testament,  we 
behold  a  race  whose  soul  has  been  molded  and 
scarred  by  the  perils  and  vicissitudes  of  the  way. 
Grim  encounters  with  famine,  war,  and  perse- 
cution have  left  their  impress  upon  Jewish  char- 
acter, as  have  also  the  subtle  temptations  of 
material  prosperity  and  of  intimate  contact  with 
the  Greek  and  Roman  masters  of  the  world,  but 
throughout  all  the  changing  fortunes  of  the  race, 
its  vital  center,  the  heart  which  has  controlled  the 
pulsations  of  its  distinctive  and  peculiar  life,  has 
been  the  law  established  five  hundred  years  before 
the  coming  of  Christ.  Ever  since  the  fateful 
day  when  Ezra  read  the  sacred  scrolls  before  the 
assembled  Jewish  people  and  they  made  a  solemn 
covenant  to  do  its  bidding,  it  had  been  recognized 
as  canonical,  that  is,  as  the  binding  rule  of  daily 
life.  To  obey  it  faithfully  meant  righteousness 

153 


154          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

and  the  service  of  God;  no  sin  could  be  graver 
or  more  profane  than  the  neglect  of  its  slightest 
detail.  Not  only  its  commands,  but  every  word 
which  it  contained  was  believed  to  be  the  result 
of  divine  inspiration.  "He  who  asserts  that  the 
Torah  is  not  from  heaven  has  no  part  in  the 
future  world,"  and  "He  who  says  that  Moses 
wrote  even  one  word  of  his  own  knowledge  is  a 
denier  and  despiser  of  the  word  of  God"  were 
revered  decisions  of  the  Jewish  rabbis.  "The 
whole  Pentateuch  was  regarded  as  dictated  by 
God,  as  prompted  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Even 
the  last  eight  verses  of  Deuteronomy  in  which 
the  death  of  Moses  is  related,  were  said  to  have 
been  written  by  Moses  himself  by  means  of  divine 
dictation.  Nay,  at  last,  the  view  of  a  divine 
dictation  was  no  longer  sufficient.  The  complete 
book  of  the  law  was  declared  to  have  been  handed 
to  Moses  by  God  and  it  was  only  disputed  whether 
God  delivered  the  whole  Torah  to  Moses  at 
once  or  by  volumes." 

The  law  which  was  read  by  Ezra  to  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  consisted  only  of  the  first  five 
books  of  our  Old  Testament;  the  sacred  writings 
of  the  subjects  of  Herod  the  Great  were  divided 
into  three  groups. 

The  Law  (or  Torah) 

Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers,  Deufr 
eronomy. 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  CANON          155 

The  Prophets  (or  Nabii) 
Early  Prophets 

Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel,  Kings. 
Later  Prophets 

Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel.     The  Twelve 
Minor  Prophets,  Hosea  to  Malachi. 
The  Writings   (Hagiographa  or  Kethubim) 

(a)  The  poetical  books 
Psalms,  Proverbs,  Job 

(b)  The  Migilloth  or  Rolls 

Song   of   Solomon,    Ruth,   Lamentations, 
Ecclesiastes,  Esther. 

(c)  Historical  books 

Daniel,  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  'Chronicles. 

Of  these,  the  Torah  was  regarded  with 
greatest  reverence.  Its  antiquity  and  the  tradition 
of  its  divine  origin  may  have  given  it  a  higher 
place  in  the  esteem  of  the  Jews  than  books  which 
would  seem  to  us  to  have  a  greater  spiritual 
value,  as  the  Psalms  or  the  prophecies  of  Hosea 
and  Isaiah;  or  with  its  double  thread  of  narra- 
tive and  law,  inspiring  history  and  definite  rules 
for  daily  conduct,  it  may  have  been  better  adapted 
to  meet  the  primitive  spiritual  needs  of  the  Jewish 
nation. 

In  432  B.  c.,  the  Pentateuch  was  the  only  part 
of  our  Bible  recognized  as  sacred  and  the  books 
of  the  prophets  were  preserved  only  on  account  of 
their  literary  merit;  but,  at  a  later  date,  when 


156         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

the  people,  who  so  violently  hated  and  opposed 
the  prophets  of  their  own  generation,  had  passed 
away  and  the  truth  and  value  of  their  writings 
had  been  tested  and  proved  throughout  the 
troubled  days  of  the  exile  and  the  equally  trying 
days  of  the  return,  there  was  a  growing  convic- 
tion that  these  men  had  been  the  servants  and 
mouthpiece  of  God.  The  priests  began  to  read 
the  prophetic  writings  in  the  synagogue,  and  by 
200  B.  c.,  they  had  been  admitted  to  the  Canon. 
It  is  impossible  to  say  why  the  Writings  were 
so  long  excluded  from  the  Canon  or  Just  when 
their  admittance  took  place.  The  dates  assigned 
by  authorities  to  their  origin  sheds  no  light  upon 
the  subject  for  although,  in  the  opinion  of  many 
scholars,  some  of  the  books  of  this  group,  as 
Daniel  and  Ecclesiastes,  were  not  written  until 
the  second  century  B.  c.,  others  antedate  the 
books  of  the  later  prophets.  It  is  probably  true 
of  some  of  the  writings  that  they  were  not  col- 
lected and  edited  till  long  after  their  foundation 
had  been  laid.  The  Psalter,  for  instance,  could 
not  have  assumed  its  present  form  earlier  than 
sometime  in  the  first  century  B.  cv  more  than  nine 
hundred  years  after  the  first  Psalms  were  written 
by  David,  if,  as  the  context  would  lead  us  to 
suppose,  the  latest  Psalms  were  the  product 
of  the  Maccabean  period.  The  slow  formation 
of  the  Psalter  and  the  fact  that  it  was 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  CANON  157 

the  hymnal  of  the  temple  service  may  account 
for  its  long  exclusion;  and  the  probation  of  other 
books  of  this  group,  Esther,  Ecclesiastes,  and 
the  Song  of  Solomon,  was  probably  lengthened 
by  the  character  of  their  contents,  for  their  divine 
inspiration  is  still  sometimes  questioned  by  sin- 
cere Christians  and  they  have  made  a  less  certain 
appeal  to  the  spiritual  perception  of  men  of  all 
generations  than  other  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. By  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era, 
however,  all  the  Writings  except  Ecclesiastes 
and  the  Song  of  Solomon  had  crept  into  the 
exclusive  circle  of  Jewish  scripture;  and  after  the 
admission  of  these  two  laggards,  which  did  not 
occur  before  the  second  century  A.  D.,  the  Hebrew 
makers  of  the  Canon,  less  generous  but  more  dis- 
criminating than  their  Alexandrian  brethern, 
permanantly  closed  its  doors  to  all  newcomers, 
and  the  Old  Testament  assumed  the  form  which 
it  bears  today. 

When  the  Jews  first  tried  to  regulate  their 
daily  conduct  by  the  laws  of  Deuteronomy  and 
Leviticus,  they  experienced  even  greater  difficulty 
than  would  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  should 
he  attempt  to  govern  the  details  of  his  daily  life 
by  the  rules  of  our  American  statute  books. 
Many  of  the  Jews  could  not  read  the  law  and 
those  who  could,  did  not  understand  how  to  apply 
it  to  the  exigencies  of  daily  life.  No  law  couFd 


158          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

have  been  complete  enough  to  touch  upon  all  the 
trivial  points  it  was  supposed  to  govern  and  many 
cases  occurred  to  which  it  was  impossible  or  in- 
convenient to  apply  its  precepts  in  their  original 
form.  It  needed  interpretation  and  elaboration. 

At  first  the  explanation  of  the  law  was  the  task 
of  the  priests,  but  as  it  became  more  and  more 
the  center  about  which  Jewish  life  revolved, 
learned  Hebrews  became  professional  scribes 
or  lawyers  and  devoted  their  lives  to  the  study 
of  its  maxims.  Schools  were  established  at 
Jerusalem  and  in  other  Jewish  settlements 
where  the  law  was  the  subject  of  endless  and 
wearisome  discussion.  Each  mandate  was  di- 
vided and  subdivided  again  and  again  to  meet  the 
most  trivial  happenings  of  daily  life,  and  innu- 
merable absurd  and  petty  rules  were  the  result. 

The  decisions  of  the  scribes,  like  the  decisions  of 
our  own  Supreme  Courts,  formed  a  law  of  pre- 
cedent or  custom,  and  were  called  Halacha. 
There  was  a  tradition  that  Moses,  after  present- 
ing each  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel  with  a 
copy  of  the  Pentateuch,  had  repeated  an  oral  law 
four  times  to  the  assembled  people.  This  tradi- 
tion divided  the  Halacha  into  two  classes,  the 
oral  precepts  handed  down  from  Moses,  which 
were  regarded  with  greatest  reverence  and  the 
oral  laws  springing  from  the  discussions  of  the 
scribes  which  became  established  only  when  a 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  CANON          159 

majority  of  the  learned  had  agreed  upon  their 
acknowledgment.  All  the  Halacha,  no  matter 
how  entirely  they  differed  from  the  original  man- 
dates, were  believed  to  spring  from  the  laws  of 
the  Torah,  and  thirteen  rules  laid  down  by  the 
Rabbis  for  demonstrating  the  law  were  regarded 
with  such  reverence  that  orthodox  Hebrews 
repeated  them  daily  as  a  part  of  their  morning 
devotions. 

As  religion  was  the  one  absorbing  interest  of 
the  Jews,  the  scribes  occupied  themselves  more 
with  the  discussion  of  the  laws  which  controlled 
their  worship  of  God  than  with  civil  and  criminal 
laws,  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  rules 
of  cleanness  and  uncleanness  forming  beyond  all 
others,  fruitful  subjects  for  boundless  discussion. 

The  superstitious  and  trifling  character  of  these 
debates  is  illumined  by  the  dispute  between  the 
'Pharisees  and  Sadducees  in  regard  to  touching  the 
holy  books.  It  was  ordained  by  the  scribes  that 
anyone  who  had  touched  the  holy  books  should  not 
eat  the  truma  or  first-fruits  until  he  had  first 
washed  his  hands.  They  made  this  rule  because  the 
sacred  scrolls  laid  carefully  away  in  times  of  per- 
secution, might  have  been  gnawed  by  rats  and 
thus  rendered  unclean.  Therefore  if  a  Jew 
had  touched  any  one  of  the  sacred  books  except 
Ecclesiastes,  which  was  deemed  less  holy  than  the 
rest,  he  might  not  partake  of  the  first-fruits  until 


160          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

his  hands  were  washed.  As  a  result  of  this  mo- 
mentous decision,  which  was  ridiculed  by  the 
Sadducees,  the  terms  "defile  the  hands"  and  "can- 
onical" became  synonomous  in  Rabbinical  schools. 

But  the  Rabbis  did  not  confine  their  research 
to  the  law.  The  narrative  with  which  it  was 
interwoven  must  also  be  placed  beneath  the  mag- 
nifying glass  of  Jewish  prejudice.  To  render  the 
mercies  of  God  to  his  chosen  people  more  mar- 
vellous and  to  cast  a  glamour  over  the  heroes  of 
their  race,  they  gave  their  imagination  free  rein 
and  did  not  hestitate  to  grossly  exaggerate  his- 
toric facts  or  to  create  wild  legends  and  ficti- 
tious events.  Genesis  and  Exodus  were  rewritten 
and  elaborated,  and  we  are  told  that  Abraham 
instructed  the  King  of  Egypt  in  astrology,  that 
the  Egyptians  owed  their  civilization  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Moses  and  that  alphabetical  writing  was 
invented  by  him.  The  Israelites  when  passing 
through  the  wilderness  were  not  furnished  with 
water  from  a  rock  once,  but  a  miraculous  spring 
bubbling  from  a  great  stone  accompanied  them 
throughout  their  entire  journey. 

The  more  action  was  restricted  by  the  rigid 
rules  of  the  Halacha,  the  greater  freedom  was 
afforded  Jewish  fancy  by  the  myths  of  the  Hag- 
gadah  Angelology  and  demonology  became  preva- 
lent; Bible  scenes,  personages,  and  even  God 
himself  were  degraded  by  the  coarse  and  profane 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  CANON          161 

creations  of  the  scribes,  the  Almighty  and  His 
angels  being  formed  by  them  into  a  kind  of 
heavenly  Sanhedrin  which  occasionally  required 
the  aid  of  an  earthly  Rabbi. 

The  legends  and  exaggerations  of  the  scribes 
were  called  Haggadah  and  with  the  Halacha, 
formed  the  basis  of  the  Talmud. 

For  a  century,  the  oral  tradition  was  trans- 
mitted from  one  generation  to  another  entirely 
by  word  of  mouth  as  it  was  feared  that  its  unity 
of  development  might  suffer  should  each  teacher 
commit  his  own  version  to  writing.  The  Rabbis 
repeated  it  over  and  over  to  their  pupils  and 
they  in  turn  memorized  it  by  numerous  repetitions. 
When,  however,  the  Jews  were  scattered  and 
threatened  with  extinction  after  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem,  the  principles  which  were  most  fre- 
quently subjects  of  discussion  were  collected  and 
codified  by  Rabbi  Jehudah,  who  feared  they  might 
be  irretrievably  lost  unless  they  were  committed 
to  writing.  This  code  was  completed  toward  the 
end  of  the  second  century  after  Christ  and  was 
called  the  Mishna.  Its  contents  were  Halachic. 
It  was  divided  into  six  orders  or  classes  which 
were  again  divided  into  sixty  tracts  or  treatises. 
The  treatises  were  divided  into  chapters  and  the 
chapters  into  paragraphs  called  mishnas,  that  is, 
mixtures  or  miscellanies.  The  first  class  con- 
tained laws  relating  to  seeds  and  products  of 


162          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

the  fields;  the  second,  laws  relating  to  festival 
celebrations;  the  third,  laws  relating  to  women; 
the  fourth,  civil  and  criminals  laws,  as  'deposits, 
usuries,  rents,  arrests,  sales  and  purchases;  the 
fifth,  laws  governing  sacrifices  and  vows;  the 
sixth,  laws  of  cleanness  and  uncleanness. 

Throughout  the  third  and  fourth  centuries 
A.  D.  the  principles  embodied  in  the  Mishna 
were  discussed  in  the  schools  of  Palestine  with 
unwearied  energy  and  the  Gemara  or  opinions  of 
the  scribes  were  also  committed  to  writing.  The 
Gemara,  meaning  complement  or  perfection,  was 
united  with  the  Mishna  and  the  result  was  the 
Jerusalem  Talmud. 

The  Mishna  was  carried  to  Babylon  by  a  pupil 
of  Rabbi  Jehudah  and  there  became  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Babylonian  Talmud,  a  book  more 
highly  valued  and  four  times  as  bulky  as  its 
Palestinian  predecessor.  The  extreme  length 
and  wearisome  detail  of  both  volumes  may  be 
conjectured  from  the  fact  that  the  discussion  of 
the  fifth  and  sixth  Sedars  were  never  reached  in 
either,  the  Palestinian  Talmud  containing  the 
elaboration  of  thirty-nine  tracts  and  the  Baby- 
lonian of  thirty-six  and  one-half. 

The  Talmud  received  even  greater  respect  and 
reverence  from  the  Jews  than  the  Torah.  They 
compared  the  Pentateuch  to  water  and  the  Tal- 
mud to  wine.  Of  the  twelve  hours  of  which  the 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  CANON          163 

day  was  composed,  they  declared  that  God  em- 
ployed nin.e  to  study  the  Talmud  and  only  three 
to  read  the  written  law;  and  the  reading  of  the 
Hagiographa  in  the  synagogue  was  forbidden 
lest  it  divert  the  attention  of  the  people  from  the 
discourses  of  the  Rabbis.  But  to  non-Jewish 
and  modern  scholars,  this  repository  of  Jewish 
wisdom  presents  the  aspect  of  a  vast  ocean  in 
whose  muddy  depths  there  are  few  pearls,  a 
dreary  desert  with  only  an  occasional  oasis. 
It  is  pre-eminently  a  statute  book;  but  besides 
laws  and  explanations  of  laws  hopelessly  en- 
tangled with  Jewish  ideas  of  morality  and  re- 
ligion, it  contains  treatises  on  education,  ethics, 
mathematics,  medicine,  botany,  zoology,  astron- 
omy, and  geography  with  biographical  sketches 
of  the  Jewish  scholars  who  wrote  them;  and  be- 
neath its  distorted  mask  of  prejudice  and  super- 
stition rest  genuine  features  of  Jewish  history. 

A  few  beautiful  and  noble  sayings  in  which  the 
Rabbis  found  a  pretext  for  diminishing  the  origin- 
ality of  Jesus  may  be  gleaned  from  its  innu- 
merable pages.  Among  them  are  the  following: 

Love  peace  and  pursue  it  at  any  cost. 

Remember  that  it  is  better  to   be  persecuted  than  to 

persecute. 
He  who  giveth  alms  in  secret  is  greater  than  Moses 

himself. 
It  is  better  to  utter  a  short  prayer  with  devotion  than 

a  long  one  without  fervor. 


164         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  Canon  Far- 
rar's  criticism  -of  the  Talmud : 

"The  language  of  the  Talmud  is  uncouth, 
corrupt  and  often  unintelligible,  and  nothing  can 
be  conceived  more  unprofitable  and  tedious  than 
its  confused  and  desultory  wrangles  teeming  with 
contradictions  and  mistakes.  Lightfoot,  than 
whom  no  scholar  has  a  better  right  to  speak,  says 
that  the  'almost  unconquerable  difficulty  of  the 
style,  the  frightful  roughness  of  the  language,  and 
the  amazing  emptiness  and  sophistry  of  the  mat- 
ters handled  do  torture,  vex,  and  tire  him  who 
reads.1  " 


CHAPTER  X 

SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE 

After  the  exile,  the  Jews,  except  for  a  compar- 
atively short  period  of  independence,  were  the 
subjects  of  foreign  powers  who  cared  nothing  for 
their  religious  laws  and  customs.  Even  their 
native  Asmonean  monarchs  were,  with  one  or 
two  exceptions,  Sadducees  who  ridiculed  the  oral 
tradition  and  made  the  rules  of  the  Torah  sub- 
servient to  political  advancement.  If  therefore 
the  law  was  to  be  enforced  and  practiced,  it  must 
be  propped  into  its  high  and  central  position  by 
public  sentiment  and  careful  education.  The 
former  was  created  by  the  scribes  whose  influence 
over  the  people  was  almost  unlimited. 

"Let  your  house  be  a  house  of  assembly  for 
those  wise  in  the  law;  let  yourself  be  dusted  by 
the  dust  of  their  feet,  and  drink  eagerly  tfieir 
teaching" ; 

"He  who  in  walking  repeats  the  law  to  himself, 
but  interrupts  himself,  and  exclaims  'How 
beautiful  is  this  tree!  How  beautiful  is  this 
field!'  the  Scripture  will  impute  it  to  him  as 
though  he  had  forfeited  his  life"; 

165 


166         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

UA  bastard  who  knows  the  law  takes  prece- 
dence of  the  high  priest  if  he  is  ignorant";  are 
samples  of  the  sayings  with  which  they  kin- 
dled the  enthusiasm  of  their  followers. 

According  to  the  oral  tradition,  it  was  Moses 
who  first  prescribed  that  boys  should  learn  the 
most  important  laws  and  commanded  the  people 
to  instruct  their  children  in  reading  and  writing 
that  they  might  know  the  deeds  of  their  fore- 
fathers and  walk  according  to  the  holy  laws. 
This,  like  many  other  bits  of  Haggadic  wisdom, 
is  only  a  flight  of  Rabbinical  fancy,  although  it 
is  impossible  to  read  the  book  of  Proverbs  with- 
out being  led  to  believe  that  the  Jews  set  a  high 
value  upon  education  at  a  very  early  date.  It 
was  not,  however,  until  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  had 
made  the  law  the  prime  factor  in  the  religion  of 
Israel,  that,  in  the  words  of  Wellhausen,  piety 
and  education  became  inseparable,  the  community 
became  a  school,  and  the  Bible  a  spelling-book. 

At  first  the  instruction  of  the  children  was  the 
task  of  the  father  and  mother  and  home  teaching 
made  a  knowledge  of  reading  more  widely  dis- 
tributed than  might  be  supposed.  Even  in  the 
Maccabean  period,  copies  of  the  law  are  men- 
tioned as  the  property  of  private  individuals, 
(I  Mace,  i,  56,)  a  fact  which  would  presup- 
pose an  ability  to  read  on  the  part  of  their  own- 
ers. The  culture  of  Alexandria  doubtless  had  a 


SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE  167 

stimulating  effect  upon  Jewish  learning,  for  ac- 
cording to  Josephus,  the  tax-farmer  Joseph  sent 
his  sons  there  to  be  educated  during  the  reign  of 
the  Ptolemies;  and  a  new  impulse  to  education 
was  probably  received  from  Hellenism  and  from 
such  sages  as  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Sirach.* 

To  make  instruction  in  the  law  more  thorough 
and  more  general,  elementary  schools  for  boys 
were  finally  established  in  every  town  and  prov- 
ince of  Palestine.  The  date  when  these  schools 
first  sprang  into  existence  is  wrapped  in  obscurity. 
It  is  thought  by  some  critics  that  a  school  for 
boys  may  have  entered  Jerusalem  with  the  first 
gymnasium  in  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes ; 
and  the  tradition  which  tells  us  that  Simon  ben 
Shetach  made  attendance  upon  the  elementary 
schools  compulsory  would  assume  the  existence 
of  at  least  scattered  elementary  schools  in  his 
day,  if  the  halo  with  which  the  Pharisees  sur- 
round the  golden  age  of  Alexandra  did  not 
render  the  many  legends  which  gather  about  her 
reign  of  a  doubtful  character.  Later  traditions 
which  cannot  be  ignored  make  the  existence  of 
public  schools,  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christ- 
ian era,  a  certainty  and  indicate  that  they  un- 
doubtedly became  a  regular  and  established  in- 
stitution a  century  later.  Legal  decisions  in 

*  Jos.  Ant.  XII,  iv,  6,  implies  that  schools  on  the  Greek  Model 
had  been  established  in. Jerusalem  before  B.C.  220. 


168         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

regard  to  teachers  are  found  in  the  Mishna,  and 
Jewish  annals  record  the  decree  made  by  Joshua 
ben  Gamla  (Jesus  the  son  of  Gamaliel)  who 
was  high  priest  about  63-65  A.  D.,  that  teachers 
of  boys  be  appointed  in  every  town  and  province 
and  that  children  at  the  age  of  six  or  seven,  be 
compelled  to  attend  their  classes. 

Josephus  who  lived  in  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  boasts  of  being  so  well  acquainted 
with  the  rules  of  Torah  in  his  fourteenth  year 
that  the  high  priest  and  elders  of  Jerusalem  came 
to  him  for  information.  He  also  speaks  in 
glowing  terms  of  the  enthusiasm  shown  in  the 
instruction  of  young  children.  uWe  take  most 
pains  of  all,"  he  says,  "with  the  instruction  of 
children,  and  esteem  the  observation  of  the 
laws  and  the  piety  corresponding  with  them  the 
most  important  affair  of  our  whole  lives.  If 
anyone  should  question  one  of  us  concerning  the 
laws,  he  would  more  easily  repeat  them  all  than 
his  own  name.  Since  we  learn  them  from  our 
first  consciousness,  we  have  them,  as  it  were,  en- 
graven on  our  souls;  and  a  transgression  is  rare, 
but  the  averting  of  punishment  impossible. " 

A  room  in  the  synagogue  was  reserved  for  a 
school-room  and  the  minister  or  Hazan  was  also 
the  instructor  of  the  children.  Boys  entered 
school  when  they  were  six  years  of  age.  They 
were  instructed  in  reading,  writing,  and  the 


SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE  169 

simplest  elements  of  arithmetic.  Their  first 
text  book  was  a  roll  of  scripture  and  their  first 
lesson  a  verse  from  Leviticus.  After  the  letters 
were  mastered,  the  child  learned  the  verse  by 
heart,  repeating  it  over  and  over  again.  Con- 
stant repetition  played  an  important  part  in 
Jewish  education,  and  the  school-room  was  con- 
stantly filled  with  a  confused  babel  of  voices,  for 
"was  there  not  once  a  pupil  who  learned  his  task 
without  repeating  the  words  aloud  and  in  con- 
sequence forgot  all  he  had  learned  in  three 
years?"  After  the  verse  was  perfectly  memo- 
rized, the  teacher  copied  it  and  taught  the  pupil 
to  recognize  the  words  it  contained. 

The  children  were  taught  to  write  upon  a  sherd 
of  pottery  and  were  later  promoted  to  wax  tab- 
lets upon  which  they  formed  letters  with  a 
pointed  style  or  metal  instrument.  It  was  not 
until  they  had  become  proficient  that  they  were 
allowed  to  try  their  skill  on  the  costly  papyrus 
from  which  the  scrolls  were  made.  Only  a  few 
boys  who  wished  to  become  sages  or  scribes  con- 
tinued their  education  after  completing  the 
course  furnished  by  the  elementary  schools,  and 
as  there  were  no  schools  for  girls,  they  were 
taught  by  their  mothers  at  home. 

From  their  earliest  years,  the  young  Jews 
must  practice  the  law  as  well  as  learn  its  theory. 
They  were  instructed  in  the  observance  of  the 


170         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

Sabbath  at  a  tender  age,  and  were  gradually 
accustomed  to  the  prescribed  fasts.  As  soon  as 
boys  were  able  to  walk,  their  fathers  were  urged 
to  lead  or  carry  them  to  the  feasts  at  the  temple, 
especially  to  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  When  a 
grandson  was  born  to  Shammai,  the  famous 
Pharisee,  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  he  left  the 
roof  of  his  daughter-in-law's  chamber  open  and 
covered  the  bed  with  branches  in  his  zeal  to  ob- 
serve the  precept  given  in  the  Mishna,  "A  boy 
who  is  capable  of  shaking  the  lubab  is  bound  to 
keep  it/'  that  is,  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles. 

The  minority  of  a  Jewish  boy  had  passed  when 
he  reached  the  age  of  twelve  or  thirteen  years; 
the  duties  and  privileges  of  every  grown 
Israelite  were  his;  and  the  school  was  superseded 
by  the  synagogue. 

The  synagogue  was  the  herald  which  proclaimed 
the  message  of  Judaism  not  only  throughout  Pal- 
estine, but  in  every  remote  town  or  city  of  the 
dispersion.  A  demand  for  houses  of  worship 
where  the  law  might  be  read  and  studied  was 
created  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  and  although 
the  Rabbis  invested  the  synagogue  with  dignity 
by  ascribing  its  origin  to  the  command  of  Moses, 
there  is  no  evidence  of  its  existence  until  after 
the  return.  The  eighth  verse  of  Psalm  seventy- 
four,  which  was  probably  written  in  the  Macca- 
bean  period,  contains  the  first  reference  to  the 


SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE  171 

synagogue  found  in  the  Bible,  and  with  papyrus 
finds  of  recent  years  indicates  that  their  existence 
had  become  quite  general  by  the  latter  half  of 
the  second  century  before  Christ,  although  their 
origin  may  be  ascribed  to  an  earlier  date.*  As 
early  as  the  third  century  before  Christ  where- 
ever  there  was  a  settlement  of  Jews,  they  formed 
themselves  into  a  congregation,  and  a  synagogue 
was  built  generally  by  the  free  contributions  of 
the  people,  sometimes  by  the  generosity  of  one 
wealthy  man.  One  synagogue  was  found  in 
every  small  Jewish  town  and  many  more  in 
Jewish  cities,  although  the  tradition  that  there 
were  four  hundred  and  eighty  in  Jerusalem  is 
doubtless  an  exaggeration. 

To  render  these  emissaries  of  Judaism  more 
conspicuous,  the  Rabbis  commanded  that  they 
be  built  upon  the  highest  point  of  land  in  the 
town  and  that  a  tall  pole  rise  from  their  roofs. 
This  command  must  often  have  been  disregarded, 
for  the  ruins  of  old  synagogues  found  in  Galilee 
are  situated  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  town;  and 
their  entrances  which,  according  to  the  Rabbin- 
ical requirements,  should  have  been  on  the  west, 
are  situated  at  the  south  so  that  each  Jew  as  he 
entered,  would  be  obliged  to  turn  his  back  toward 

*  Not  a  few  references  to  the  synagogues  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munities in  Egypt  from  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Euergetes  (247- 
22z  B.  c.)  onwards  have  been  discovered  on  ancient  manu- 
scripts in  recent  years. 


172         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

the  holy  city.  Sometimes  locations  on  the  banks 
of  streams  or  lakes  were  chosen  that  the  wor- 
shippers might  have  a  convenient  place  in  which 
to  perform  the  ablutions  necessary  before  en- 
tering; and  sometimes  reverence  for  a  holy  man 
who  had  passed  away,  was  expressed  by  the 
erection  of  a  house  of  prayer  near  his  tomb. 

The  form  and  size  of  the  synagogue  differed 
with  the  size  and  wealth  of  its  congregation. 
Ruins  still  extant  prove  that  they  were  almost 
always  rectangular  in  shape  with  the  largest  di- 
mension running  north  and  south.  The  walls 
were  formed  from  blocks  of  native  limestone 
"chiselled"  into  each  other  without  mortar,  the 
floors  were  paved  with  the  same  white  stone,  and 
the  roofs  were  thickly  covered  with  earth  to  keep 
out  the  intense  heat.  The  interior  was  divided 
into  aisles  by  rows  of  columns,  and  the  entrances 
were  three  in  number,  one  large  door  opening  in- 
to the  central  aisle  and  a  smaller  one  on  each 
side.  The  space  over  the  doors  was  ornamented 
with  appropriate  figures  in  sculpture,  the  golden 
candlestick,  the  pot  of  manna,  the  paschal  lamb 
or  the  vine.  Synagogues  were  sometimes  dis- 
tinguished from  each  other  by  special  emblems. 
In  Sepphoris  there  was  the  synagogue  of  the  vine 
and  in  Rome  the  synagogue  of  the  olive  tree. 

The  interior  of  the  synagogue  was  so  arranged 
as  to  recall  the  interior  of  the  temple  at  Jeru- 


SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE  173 

salem.  A  sunken  place  used  for  a  porch  corres- 
ponded to  the  forecourts  of  the  temple,  and  an 
elevated  place  near  the  center  of  the  room  where 
the  reading  desk  stood,  in  some  measure,  to  the 
altar.  The  recess  in  which  the  sacred  scrolls 
were  kept  was  typical  of  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and 
the  curtain  which  enclosed  it,  of  the  veil  which 
separated  that  mysterious  chamber  from  the  Holy 
place.  The  scrolls  were  carefully  wrapped  in 
several  covers  of  silk  and  linen,  which  were  some- 
times embroidered  and  ornamented  with  little 
bells,  or,  if  the  means  of  the  worshippers  per- 
mitted it,  adorned  with  silver  and  gold.  In  front 
of  this  closet,  hung  an  ever-burning  lamp  symbolic 
of  the  eternal  fire  of  the  altar  and  beside  it,  an 
eight  branched  candlestick  shaped  like  the  golden 
candlestick  of  the  Holy  place. 

The  elders  of  the  synagogue  sat  on  raised  cush- 
ions in  the  chief  seats  next  the  recess  and  the 
people  stood  or  sat  on  the  floor  facing  them. 
Men  and  women  were  separated  by  a  lattice  and 
sat  with  their  backs  to  each  other.  In  wealthier 
congregations,  a  gallery  was  built  for  the  women, 
but  they  were  always  placed  where  they  could  not 
be  seen  by  the  men  of  the  congregation. 
Men  of  the  same  trade  sat  together  and 
if  there  was  a  leper  among  the  worshippers,  a 
space  was  set  apart  for  him.  The  trombone  and 
trumpets  with  which  the  Hazan,  standing  on  the 


174         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

roof  of  the  synagogue,  announced  the  advent  of 
Sabbaths  and  feast  days,  were  kept  at  his  own 
house. 

Synagogues  were  set  apart  by  a  prayer  of  ded- 
ication and  were  regarded  with  great  reverence 
by  the  people.  If  deserted,  they  must  not  be  used 
for  baths,  tanneries,  or  laundries.  The  passerby 
must  not  take  refuge  from  the  sun  or  wind  in  a 
synagogue  or  go  through  it  to  shorten  his  way. 

The  chief  authorities  of  these  houses  of  prayer 
were  a  council  of  elders  who,  in  strictly  Jewish 
localities,  were  also  the  political  authorities  of 
the  place.  They  enforced  the  law  by  pronounc- 
ing a  sentence  of  excommunication  upon  of- 
fenders, a  ban  which  excluded  the  culprits  either 
permanently  or  temporarily  from  the  congre- 
gation, and  was  accompanied  in  extreme  cases  by 
the  dreaded  anathema  or  publicly  pronounced 
curse.  They  also  looked  out  for  the  poor  and 
strangers,  and  had  a  general  oversight  of  the 
affairs  of  the  synagogue. 

Besides  the  elders,  various  officers  were  ap- 
pointed to  discharge  especial  duties.  A  ruler  of 
the  synagogue,  often  one  of  its  elders,  was  chosen 
to  supervise  its  services,  that  is,  to  decide  who 
should  read  from  the  Scripture,  preach  the  ser- 
mon, conduct  the  prayers,  and  pronounce  the 
benediction.  It  was  also  his  duty  to  care  for  the 
building  itself  and  see  that  nothing  improper 


SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE  175 

took  place  within  its  precincts.  Five  receivers 
of  alms,  two  to  receive  and  three  to  distribute 
offerings,  collected  money  in  a  box  and  natural 
products  in  a  dish  and  gave  them  to  the  poor. 

The  Hazan  or  minister  must  be  well-versed  in 
the  scripture  and  of  irreproachable  character. 
He  acted  as  the  sexton  of  the  synagogue,  bring- 
ing out  the  scrolls  and  putting  them  away,  clean- 
ing the  lamps  and  opening  and  closing  the  doors. 
In  addition  to  his  other  duties,  he  executed  sen- 
tences of  scourging,  often  taught  the  children  to 
read,  and  generally  lead  the  chanting  or  prayer. 
To  guard  against  empty  seats  and  a  congregation 
of  less  than  the  required  number,  the  resourceful 
authorities  of  post-Talmudic  times  employed  ten 
men  who  were  bound  by  a  fee  to  attend  each 
service  of  the  week  from  beginning  to  end. 

In  every  Jewish  home,  the  Sabbath  lamp  was 
lighted,  the  best  garments  put  on,  and  the  house 
made  ready  for  the  coming  of  the  holy  day  on 
Friday  night.  On  Saturday  morning,  the  family 
hastened  to  the  synagogue,  going  quickly  and  re- 
turning slowly  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the 
Rabbis.  Services  were  held  on  the  morning  and 
evening  of  the  Sabbath  and  upon  Mondays  and 
Thursdays,  the  market  days  of  the  Jews.  The 
principal  features  of  the  Sabbath  morning  service 
were  the  recitation  of  the  Shema,  the  prayer, 
reading  from  the  Thorah,  reading  from  the  pro- 


176         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

phets,  and  the  benediction.  At  least  seven 
members  of  the  congregation  were  appointed  by 
the  ruler  of  the  synagogue  to  take  part  in  the  serv- 
ice each  Sabbath.  During  the  prayer  and  the 
recitation  of  the  Shema,  which  was  the  Jewish 
confession  of  faith  and  consisted  of  certain 
passages  from  Deuteronomy  and  Number,* 
the  people  stood  with  their  faces  turned  toward 
the  Holy  of  Holies  and  the  leader  stood  in  front 
of  the  recess  where  the  rolls  of  scripture  were 
kept,  the  congregation  making  only  certain  re- 
sponses during  the  prayer.  This  portion  of  the 
service  was  followed  by  readings  of  not  less 
than  three  verses  each  from  the  Torah,  which 
in  the  Mishna  was  divided  into  one  hundred  and 
fifty-four  sections,  so  that,  by  reading  one  section 
each  Sabbath,  the  whole  might  be  finished  in  three 
years.  After  the  reading  from  the  Pentateuch, 
one  person  who  might  select  any  passage  he  chose, 
read  from  the  prophets,  and  as  the  people  no 
longer  understood  the  Hebrew  in  which  the 
sacred  books  were  written,  a  translator  was  em- 
ployed who  translated  each  verse  as  soon  as  it 
was  read,  into  the  Aramaic  dialect.  Some  mem- 
ber of  the  congregation,  preferably  a  priest  or 
Levite,  next  gave  an  edifying  discourse  upon  the 
portion  which  had  been  read.  One  of  these  ser- 
mons preserved  in  the  Talmud  was  upon  the  text 

*Deut.  vi,  4-9;  xi,  13-21  and  Num.  xv,  37-41. 


SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE  177 

"He  hath  clothed  me  with  the  garments  of  sal- 
vation," and  may  illustrate  their  characteristics. 
"There  are  seven  garments  which  the  Holy 
One,  blessed  be  His  name,  has  put  on  since  tEe 
world  began  or  will  put  on  before  the  hour  when 
He  will  visit  with  His  wrath  the  godless  Edom. 
When  He  created  the  world,  He  clothed  Himself 
in  honor  and  glory  for  it  says :  'Thou-  art  clothed 
with  honor  and  glory/  When  He  showed  Him- 
self at  the  Red  Sea,  He  clothed  Himself  in  maj- 
esty, for  it  says:  'The  Lord  reigneth,  He  is 
clothed  in  majesty.'  When  He  gave  the  law,  He 
clothed  Himself  with  might,  for  it  says :  'Jehovah 
is  clothed  v/ith  might  wherewith  He  hath  girded 
Himself.'  As  often  as  He  forgave  Israel  its 
sins,  He  clothed  Himself  in  white  for  it  says: 
'His  garment  was  white  as  snow/  When  He 
punishes  the  nations  of  the  world  He  puts  on  the 
garments  of  vengeance  for  it  says:  'He  put  on 
the  garments  of  vengeance  for  clothing  and  was 
clad  with  zeal  as  a  cloak.'  He  will  put  on  the 
sixth  robe  when  the  Messiah  is  revealed.  Then 
will  He  clothe  Himself  in  righteousness  for  it 
says:  'For  he  put  on  righteousness*  as  a  breast- 
plate and  an  helmet  of  salvation  on  His  head.' 
He  will  put  on  the  seventh  robe  when  He  punishes 
Edom.  Then  will  He  clothe  Himself  in  Adorn 
(red)  for  it  says:  Wherefore  art  thou  red  in 
thine  apparel?'  But  the  robes  in  which  He  will 


178          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

clothe  the  Messiah  will  shine  from  one  end  of 
the  world  to  the  other,  for  it  says:  'As  a  bride- 
groom who  is  crowned  with  his  turban,  like  a 
priest*  And  the  sons  of  Israel  will  rejoice  in 
His  light  and  will  say,  'Blessed  be  the  hour  when 
the  Messiah  was  born,  blessed  the  womb  which 
bore  -Him,  blessed  the  eyes  which  were  counted 
worthy  to  see  Him.  For  the  opening  of  His  lips 
is  blessing  and  peace,  His  speech  is  rest  to  the 
soul,  the  thoughts  of  His  heart  confidence  and 
joy,  the  speech  of  His  lips  pardon  and  forgive- 
ness, His  prayer  like  the  sweet-smelling  savor  of 
a  sacrifice,  His  supplications  holiness  and  purity.' 
O  how  blessed  is  Israel,  for  whom  such  a  lot  is  re- 
served, for  it  says :  'How  great  is  Thy  goodness 
which  thou  hast  laid  up  for  them  that  fear 
Thee.'  " 

If  a  priest  were  present,  he  closed  the  service 
by  pronouncing  a  benediction  to  which  the  people 
responded;  but  a  prayer  was  substituted  for  the 
benediction  if  there  was  no  priest  among  the  wor- 
shippers. 

This  was  the  order  of  service  prescribed  by 
the  Mishna  and  conscientiously  followed  in  the 
synagogues  of  Palestine,  but  in  Alexandria  and 
other  cities  of  the  dispersion,  the  lesson  for  the 
Torah  was  read  by  one  person.  A  similar  but 
shorter  order  of  service  was  used  on  the  evening 
of  the  Sabbath  and  at  week-day  meetings,  when 


SCHOOL  AND  SYNAGOGUE  179 

only  three  members  of  the  congregation  were 
called  upon  to  take  part  in  the  service  and  the 
Pentateuch  alone  was  read.  Every  Jewish  fes- 
tival was  observed  by  public  worship  at  the  syna- 
gogue, and  certain  passages  of  scripture  pre- 
scribed by  the  Mishna  for  special  feast  days  were 
read. 

Besides  attending  the  services  of  the  syna- 
gogue, the  men  of  the  congregation  must  repeat 
the  Shema  twice  daily;  and  the  Shemoneh  Esreh 
or  nineteen  benedictions,  a  prayer  which  was  in- 
augurated by  the  great  assembly  of  Ezra,  but  did 
not  assume  the  form  in  which  it  appeared  in 
Jewish  prayer  books  until  the  first  century  after 
Christ,  must  be  repeated  by  every  Israelite  in- 
cluding women,  slaves  and  children,  morning, 
afternoon  and  evening.  The  rules  of  the  Mishna 
also  obliged  every  Jew  to  give  thanks  before  and 
after  eating  and  to  say  certain  prayers,  upon  new 
moons,  new  years  and  feast  days. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM 

When  the  requirements  of  the  Torah  had 
been  multiplied  and  remultiplied  by  the  many 
explanations  and  elaborations  of  the  oral  tra- 
dition and  the  Jews  had  been  trained  from  in- 
fancy to  the  mercenary  belief  that  every  observ- 
ance or  transgression  of  its  precepts  met  with 
a  fitting  retribution  of  reward  or  punishment, 
both  in  this  world  and  the  final  settlement  in  the 
world  to  come,  piety,  so  called,  necessarily  be- 
came an  article  made  to  the  order  of  the  Rabbis, 
the  artificial  product  of  that  great  machine,  the 
law.  Natural  tendrils  of  spontaneous  good- 
ness were  nipped,  blossoms  of  heart  and  con- 
science dissected  by  its  endless  gyrations.  A 
man's  worship  of  God,  his  relation  toward  his 
heathen  neighbors,  in  fact,  nearly  every  detail  of 
Jewish  daily  life  was  rendered  automatic  by  its 
compulsory  passage  between  the  iron  teeth  of  the 
great  machine. 

Every  day  the  conscientious  Jew  must  wend 
his  way  through  a  labyrinthine  maze  of  rules  and 

180 


ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM  181 

restrictions,  but  on  the  Sabbath,  ingenuity  and 
learning  must  be  many  times  redoubled  to  avoid 
committing  deadly  sin.  Twenty-four  chapters  of 
the  Talmud  are  devoted  to  the  discussion  and 
elaboration  of  the  simple  directions  for  Sabbath 
observance  given  in  the  Bible  and  matters  are 
there  discussed  as  of  "vital  religious  importance 
which  one  could  scarcely  imagine  a  sane  intellect 
would  seriously  entertain." 

Bearing  a  burden  upon  the  Sabbath  had  been 
forbidden  in  the  Pentateuch  (Ex.  xxxvi.  6)  and 
an  endless  series  of  explanations  and  rules  was 
evolved  from  the  original  command.  The  bear- 
ing of  a  burden  was  divided  into  two  separate 
acts,  picking  it  up  and  putting  it  down.  It  might 
thus  be  transferred  from  a  public  to  a  private 
place.  A  public  place  and  a  private  place  must 
therefore  be  defined  and  the  exact  weight  and 
bulk  of  a  burden  must  also  be  determined.  The 
decision  that  anything  of  the  weight  of  a  dried  fig 
constituted  a  burden  and  could  not  be  carried 
from  one  place  to  another  without  desecrating 
the  Sabbath  only  led  to  the  propounding  of  an- 
other question.  If  half  a  fig  was  carried  at  two 
different  times  would  the  combined  acts  make  the 
perpetrator  guilty?  By  the  decree  of  the 
Rabbis,  anything  of  which  practical  use  could  be 
made,  even  if  it  weighed  less  than  the  prescribed 
half-fig,  as  two  horsehairs  from  which  a  bird 


182         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

trap  might  be  constructed,  a  piece  of  paper  large 
enough  for  a  custom-house  notice,  enough  ink  to 
write  two  letters,  or  enough  wax  to  fill  a  small 
hole,  was  a  burden  and  must  not  be  carried  from 
one  place  to  another  upon  the  Sabbath  day. 

The  command  "But  the  seventh  day  is  the 
sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God;  in  it  thou  shalt  not 
do  any  work"  was  much  too  general  to  be  satis- 
factory. To  determine  exactly  what  work  was 
prohibited  taxed  the  time  and  learning  of  noted 
scribes  and,  as  a  result  of  their  labor,  forty  less 
one  kinds  of  work  are  enumerated  in  the  Talmud 
as  especially  blameworthy.  Among  them  are 
reaping,  ploughing,  threshing,  grinding,  baking, 
tying  a  knot,  untying  a  knot?  sewing  two  stitches, 
writing  two  letters,  putting  out  a  fire,  lighting  a 
fire,  and  carrying  from  one  tenement  to  another. 
But  these  restrictions  were  again  much  too  in- 
definite to  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  scribes 
who  divided  and  subdivided  them  with  untiring 
energy.  The  person  who  scattered  two  seeds 
on  the  Sabbath  was  accounted  guilty  of  sowing; 
anyone  who  plucked  two  ears  of  corn  or  even  a 
blade  of  grass  had  committed  the  sin  of  reaping; 
and  he  who  picked  up  ripe  fruit  lying  beneath  a 
tree  had  twice  broken  the  law  by  reaping  and 
bearing  a  burden  upon  the  consecrated  day. 
After  much  argument  as  to  the  kind  of  knot 


ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM  183 

which  might  legally  be  tied  or  untied  on  the 
Sabbath,  it  was  decided  that  a  woman  might  tie 
the  strings  of  her  cap  or  girdle,  the  straps  of  her 
shoes  and  sandals,  or  strings  which  fastened  skins 
of  oil  or  wine;  and  since  it  was  permissible  to  tie 
the  strings  of  the  girdle,  a  pail  might  be  tied  over 
a  well  with  a  girdle,  but  not  with  a  rope.  A  knot 
which  could  be  managed  with  one  hand  might  be 
tied  or  untied,  but  tying  or  untying  the  knots  of 
sailors  or  camel  drivers  involved  labor  and  these 
might  not  legally  be  touched. 

A  set  of  rules  guarding  against  any  possible 
profanation  of  the  Sabbath  must  be  observed  by 
every  conscientious  Israelite  before  sun-set  on 
Friday  evening.  The  tailor  was  prohibited  from 
going  out  at  twilight  with  his  needle  or  the  scribe 
with  his  pen,  lest  the  holy  day  come  upon  him  un- 
awares and  he  transgress  through  forgetfulness. 
To  guard  against  the  sin  of  baking  upon  the  Sab- 
bath, putting  bread  in  the  oven  or  cakes  upon  the 
coals  after  twilight,  was  expressly  forbidden. 
Neither  was  it  allowable  to  cleanse  clothing  from 
vermin  or  read  by  lamp-light  upon  the  evening 
of  the  Sabbath,  as  in  either  case  one  might  be 
tempted  to  put  oil  in  the  lamp,  which  would  be 
kindling  a  fire,  or  to  move  it  in  order  to  see 
better,  which  would  be  bearing  a  burden.  Be- 
sides, an  insect  might  be  found  and  killed,  an  act 


184         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

expressly  forbidden,  the  killing  of  a  flea  being 
fraught  with  as*  deadly  sin  as  the  slaying  of  a 
camel. 

Women  were  warned  against  wearing  any  new 
or  novel  ornament  which.,  on  their  way  to  and 
from  the  synagogue,  they  might  be  tempted  to 
take  off  and  show  to  their  companions  for  should 
it  be  carried  in  the  hand,  they  would  have  com- 
mited  the  sin  of  bearing  a  burden.  Neither  was 
it  advisable  for  a  woman  to  look  in  her  mirror 
upon  the  holy  day,  lest  she  discover  a  white  hair 
and  pull  it  out  which  would  be  a  grievous  sin;  and 
wearing  wooden  shoes  studded  with  nails  or  only 
one  shoe  was  prohibited  as  involving  labor.  Any 
conscientious  Jew  might  use  a  wooden  leg  or 
crutches  or  wear  wadding  in  his  ear  upon  the 
Sabbath,  but  false  teeth  or  a  gold  plug  in  the 
tooth  were  forbidden  luxuries,  as  either  might 
fall  out  and  the  wearer  would  then  be  tempted  to 
lift  and  carry  them.  Only  that  food  which  had 
been  prepared  on  a  week  day  especially  for  the 
Sabbath  might  be  touched  or  tasted  upon  the  holy 
day.  If  a  hen  laid  an  egg  upon  the  Sabbath,  it 
was  forbidden  food,  for  it  could  not  have  been 
prepared  upon  a  week  day  with  intention,  as-  it 
was  not  then  laid  and  did  not  exist. 

In  case  of  fire,  warfare,  or  illness,  certain  con- 
cessions were  made.  The  scriptures  and  the  cases 
in  which  they  were  enclosed  might  be  borne  from 


ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM  185 

the  scene  of  a  conflagration  upon  the  Sabbath. 
If  a  fire  broke  out  Friday  evening,  enough  food 
might  be  saved  for  three  meals;  if  on  the  morning 
of  the  Sabbath,  enough  for  two;  if  on  Saturday 
afternoon,  enough  for  one  only.  The  precedent 
established  by  Mattathias  Maccabeus  when  with 
his  followers,  he  fought  for  his  life  upon  the  holy 
day,  was  followed  by  his  descendants;  and  the 
Jews  might  legally  defend  themselves  when 
attacked,  but  were  not  allowed  to  take  the  initia- 
tive in  warfare.  As  the  New  Testament  indi- 
cates, the  laws  in  regard  to  healing  upon  the 
Sabbath  were  very  stringent;  only  when  life  was 
endangered  was  the  use  of  remedies  to  relieve 
suffering  permissible.  A  physician  was  not 
allowed  to  set  a  broken  or  dislocated  bone,  but 
if  anyone,  Jew  or  Gentile,  should  be  buried 
beneath  a  falling  wall  or  building,  the  law  per- 
mitted his  friends  to  ascertain  whether  he  were 
alive  or  dead;  if  alive,  he  might  be  rescued;  but 
if  he  were  dead,  his  body  must  be  left  untouched 
until  the  following  day. 

To  guard  against  any  possible  desecration  of 
the  day,  the  many  special  laws  were  supplemented 
by  the  general  regulations  that  no  one  could  climb 
a  tree,  ride,  swim,  clap  his  hands,  strike  his  sides, 
or  dance  without  profaning  the  Sabbath  rest. 

Even  more  burdensome  and  more  effective  than 
the  laws  of  the  Sabbath  as  a  barrier  between  Jew 


186          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

and  Gentile  were  the  laws  of  cleanness  and  un~ 
cleanness  which  must  be  observed  every  day  in  the 
week.  The  commands  of  the  Torah  in  regard 
to  this"  subject,  many  of  which  would  meet  with 
the  approval  of  modern  physicians  as  prevent- 
ing the  spread  of  contagious  disease  and  con- 
tributing to  the  public  health  and  welfare,  were 
distorted  into  ludicrous  caricatures  of  their  orig- 
inal selves  by  the  ceaseless  elaborations  of  the 
scribes,  who  constantly  increased  the  number  of 
ways  in  which  an  orthodox  Israelite  might  incur 
defilement.  A  Jew  was  obliged  to  observe  rites 
of  purification  after  coming  in  contact  with  a 
Gentile,  his  house,  or  any  object  capable  of  con- 
tracting uncleanness  which  he  had  touched. 
Kitchen*  utensils  bought  of  a  Gentile  must  be 
plunged  into  boiling  water  or  purged  by  fire  be- 
fore they  were  used;  it  was  not  allowable  to  eat 
at  the  table  of  a  Gentile,  and  the  milk,  oil,  and 
bread  of  the  heathen  were  prohibited  foods. 
The  laws  of  defilement  governing  dishes  and 
utensils  were  especially  diffuse  and  occupied 
thirty  chapters  of  the  Mishna.  It  was-  there 
decreed  that  the  empty  space  in  hollow  earthen 
dishes  might  contract  and  cause  uncleanness,  but 
that  the  outside  was  incapable  of  contracting  or 
imparting  contamination.  Unclean  dishes  could 
be  cleans-ed  only  by  breaking,  and  if  after 
breaking,  there  remained  a  piece  which  would 


ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM  187 

hold  oil  enough  to  anoint  the  great  toe,  this 
fragment  was  still  unclean.  According  to  "the 
Mishna,  defilement  was  caught  and  imprisoned 
in  hollow  spaces,  but  slipped  from  flat  surfaces 
and  left  them  harmless.  A  flat  plate  without  a 
rim,  an  open  coal  shovel  or  perforated  roaster 
were  clean  under  all  circumstances,  but  the  con- 
tagious germ  of  defilement  clung  to  a  plate  with 
a  rim,  a  covered  coal  shovel  or  an  ink-stand  with 
divisions. 

Water  used  for  purposes  of  purification  was 
of  six  grades  ranging  from  the  stagnant  water 
of  a  ditch  or  pond  to  the  water  of  an  active 
spring.  Here  again  the  scribes  found  ample 
material  for  elaboration  and  explanation  and 
many  and  diverse  were  the  opinions  as  to  the 
proportions  in  which  the  different  grades  of 
water  might  be  mixed  and  whether  it  might  be 
mingled  with  snow,  hail,  hoar-frost,  or  ice,  for 
a  purifying  immersion. 

The  rule  that  the  hands  must  be  washed  before 
eating,  for  the  neglect  of  which  Christ  was 
severely  censured,  was  supplemented  by  another 
considered  even  more  important,  that  of  washing 
the  hands  after  eating;  and  finally  the  most 
rigorous  washed  between  courses.  The  large 
jars  used  for  ablutions  must  be  carefully  guarded 
from  the  introduction  of  any  discoloring  or  de- 
filing substance  and  must  not  be  used  for  any 


188          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

other  purpose.  If  ordinary  food  was  to  be 
eaten,  an  uplifting  or  affusion  of  the  hands  only 
was  necessary,  but  an  immersion  must  take  place 
when  the  first  fruits  formed  a  part  of  the  meal. 
For  an  affusion,  enough  water  to  fill  one  and 
one-half  egg  shells  must  be  poured  upon  the  up- 
lifted hands  in  such  a  way  that  it  would  run 
down  from  the  fingers  to  the  wrists.  If  the 
water  did  not  reach  the  wrists,  the  hands  were  not 
clean.  Hence  Mark  vii,  3,  must  mean  the  Phar- 
sees  do  not  eat  except  when  they  have  first 
washed  their  hands  to  the  wrists. 

Under  the  pressure  of  all  these  harassing  and 
burdensome  rules,  Jewish  religion  rapidly  lost 
its  freshness  and  vitality;  but  even  more  devi- 
talizing were  the  laws  in  regard  to  prayer,  that 
most  vital  center  of  religious  growth,  for  the 
form,  time,  and  manner  of  Israelitish  devotion 
were  all  restricted  with  a  minuteness  of  detail 
which  tended  to  degrade  the  natural  cry  of  the 
soul  to  God  into  a  meaningless  matter  of  dull 
routine.  The  "vain  repetitions"  of  the  prescribed 
forms  which  were  in  themselves  beautiful  and 
inspiring,  must  be  uttered  only  at  the  hours  in- 
dicated by  the  Rabbis.  A  conscientious  Jew 
might  repeat  his  evening  Shema  only  between 
the  time  when  the  priests  returned  to  eat  the 
heave  offering  and  the  end  of  the  first  night 
watch,  although  the  hour  was  extended  by  a  few 


ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM  189 

authorities  until  midnight  or  even  until  break  of 
dawn.  The  time  for  repeating  the-  morning 
Shema  extended  from  early  twilight  when  blue 
could  first  be  distinguished  from  white  until  the 
sun  appeared  or  according  to  one  eminent  au- 
thority, until  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the 
hour  when  the  children  of  princes  were  accus- 
tomed to  arise.  If  however,  during  the  stated 
hours,  one  should  read  among  other  passages  of 
Scripture  that  containing  the  Shema,  he  might 
be  excused  from  the  customary  repetitions  if  he 
had  remembered  his  devotions  and  had  con- 
sciously performed  them  in  this  way. 

As  the  Pharisees  only  too  often  so  arranged 
their  daily  tasks  that  the  hour  of  prayer  over- 
took them  upon  the  street  corners  or  in  the  mar- 
ket place  where  they  could  make  a  public  display 
of  their  devout  zeal,  the  question  of  making  and 
receiving  salutations  during  prayer  arose,  and 
the  decision  of  the  Mishna  that  prayer  must  not 
be  interrupted  even  to  salute  a  king  or  unwind  a 
serpent  from  one's  foot  was  modified  by  the 
scribes.  Salutations  were  divided  by  them  into 
three  classes,  salutations  of  reverence,  salutations 
of  fear,  and  salutations  to  anyone.  In  the  opin- 
ion of  certain  revered  Rabbis,  the  salutation  of 
fear  might  be  given  only  in  the  middle  of  the 
Shema,  but  the  salutation  of  reverence  at  the  end 
of  any  one  of  the  paragraphs  into  which  it  was 


190          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

divided.  Rabbi  Jehudah,  however,  he  by  whom 
the  Mishna  had  been  committed  to  writing,  per- 
mitted the  salutation  of  fear  to  be  given  in  the 
middle  of  the  prayer  while  the  salutation  to  any- 
one was  allowable  between  paragraphs. 

More  general  rules  commanded  that  prayer 
be  said  audibly  and  in  the  right  order.  The  de- 
votee who  made  a  mistake  must  begin  again  at 
the  place  where  the  mistake  was  made  and  re- 
peat all  perfectly  to  the  end.  Workmen  might 
pray  in  a  tree  or  upon  a  wall. 

Thanking  God  for  food  before  and  after 
eating  was  also  chilled  into  a  formalism,  which 
too  often  touched  neither  heart  nor  spirit.  Dif- 
ferent forms  of  grace  were  prescribed  for 
different  kinds  of  food.  Wine,  fruits  of  the 
ground,  bread,  vegetables,  vinegar,  unripe  fallen 
fruits,  locusts,  milk,  cheese  and  eggs  were  each 
and  all  provided  with  a  specified  blessing.  It 
was  decreed  by  Rabbi  Jehudah  that  food  the  size 
of  an  egg  demanded  the  expression  of  gratitude 
to  God;  but  that  no  duty  might  be  left  unper- 
formed, devout  Jews  said  grace  over  food  the 
size  of  an  olive.  According  to  the  school  of 
Shammai,  anyone  who  forgot  to  say  grace,  must 
return  to  the  place  where  he  had  eaten  and  rec- 
tify his  delinquency,  but  the  school  of  Hillel,  less 
stringent,  permitted  him  to  say  it  until  the  food 


ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM  191 

was  digested  whenever  and  wherever  it  came  to 
mind. 

In  addition  to  all  prescribed  rules  for  behavior, 
three  outward  symbols  attached  to  the  person 
of  Jewish  adults  or  the  doorpost  of  Jewish 
dwellings  constantly  reminded  devout  Israelites 
of  their  duty  to  God.  These  were  the  Zizith, 
the  phylacteries  or  Tephillin,  and  the  Mezuzah. 
The  Zizith  were  the  fringes  or  tassels  of  hyacin- 
thine  blue  which  the  Pentateuch  commanded  all 
Jewish  men  to  wear  at  the  corners  of  their 
outer  garments  (Num.  xv,  37.  Deut.  xxii,  12) 
"that  they  might  look  upon  them  and  remember 
the  commandments  of  the  Lord  their  God." 
The  Mezuzah  was  a  small  oblong  box  fastened  to 
the  right  hand  doorpost  of  rooms  in  Jewish 
houses.  The  passages  Deut.  vi,  4-9  and  xi, 
13—21  were  written  upon  it  in  two  paragraphs, 
and  Jewish  children  early  became  accustomed  to 
seeing  the  name  of  the  Most  High  touched  with 
reverence  by  all  who  came  and  went  and  the 
fingers  kissed  which  had  come  in  contact  with 
the  holy  words.  The  Tephillin  or  phylacteries 
were  the  prayer-straps  which  must  be  worn  by 
every  adult  male  at  morning  devotions.  They 
consisted  of  small  cases  containing  tiny  rolls  of 
parchment  on  which  was  written  Ex.  xiii,  i-io, 
xiii,  11-16  and  Deut.  vi,  4-9,  xi,  13-21,  and 


192          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

might  be  carried  in  the  hand  or  fastened  to  the 
arm  by  a  leather  strap.  Slightly  larger  cases 
divided  into  four  compartments,  one  for  each 
paragraph  of  scripture,  were  sometimes  worn 
upon  the  forehead  just  below  the  hair. 

Under  the  cultivation  of  the  scribes,  the 
"hedge  of  the  law,"  had  become  a  thicket  which 
threatened  to  choke  out  the  garden  of  true  re- 
ligion it  had  been  originated  to  protect.  Al- 
though there  were  still  many  sincere  Israelites 
who  endeavored  to  make  legalism  the  vehicle  of 
true  religion  rather  than  its  substitute,  far  too 
often  its  devotees  believed  that  in  discharging 
its  numerous  and  artificial  obligations  they  had 
fulfilled  their  whole  duty  toward  God  and  man, 
and  were  puffed  up  with  self-satisfred  pride  be- 
cause they  had  conscientiously  performed  the 
arduous  undertaking.  Moreover,  legalism  had 
become  a  burden  so  heavy  that  its  disciples 
longed  to  be  free  from  its  oppressive  weight;  and 
the  moral  nature  of  the  Rabbis  had  been  so, 
stultified  by  their  absorption  in  trifling  formal- 
ities that  the  license  with  which  they  had  twisted 
and  exaggerated  the  words  of  the  sacred  books 
was  now  applied  to  the  evasion  of  the  self-im- 
posed precepts  of  the  oral  tradition,  every  word 
of  which  they  professed  to  believe  infinitely 
sacred. 

The   law  which   forbade   carrying   from  one 


ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM  193 

tenement  to  another  was  exceptionally  trying 
because  it  restricted  all  freedom  of  movement 
upon  the  Sabbath,  but  if  the  size  of  a  tenement 
could  be  enlarged,  the  troublesome  law  might  be 
rendered  less  vexatious.  It  was  therefore  de- 
creed by  the  Rabbis  that  the  possession  of  a  com- 
mon entrance  or  a  common  store  of  food  made 
several  tenements  one;  and  before  the  beginning 
of  the  Sabbath,  food  collected  from  all  the  dwel- 
lers in  a  common  court  was  deposited  in  one 
place  to  signify  that  the  contributors  occupied  a 
single  tenement. 

Or  a  narrow  space  enclosed  on  three  sides  by 
a  beam,  rope,  or  string  served  as  a  common  en- 
trance and  made  a  number  of  dwellings  one.  It 
was  quite  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  legalism 
that  the  quantity  and  kind  of  food  used  for  the 
common  store  be  decided  upon  with  conscientious 
care  and  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  common 
entrance  and  the  size  of  the  beams,  ropes,  and 
strings  with  which  it  was  enclosed  be  made  the 
subject  of  careful  consideration. 

Walking  a  distance  of  more  than  two  thous- 
and cubits  upon  the  Sabbath  was  also  a  forbidden 
privilege  and  since  the  restriction  interfered  with 
certain  social  pleasures,  it  was  evaded  with  the 
same  childish,  but  deceitful  ingenuity.  A  Phari- 
see who  wished  to  dine  with  a  friend  living  more 
than  two  thousand  cubits  from  his  own  abode, 


194          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

deposited  food  enough  for  two  meals  at  a  dis- 
tance of  two  thousand  cubits  from  his  dwelling, 
and  from  the  fictitious  home  so  created,  he  might 
walk  two  thousand  cubits,  thus  doubling  the  al- 
loted  distance  and  reaching  the  home  of  his 
friend.  Further  quibbling  rendered  the  law  still 
more  elastic,  and  if  any  Jew  who  walked  or  rode 
upon  the  Sabbath  saw  a  tree  or  wall  two  thousand 
cubits  distant,  he  might  declare  it  his  Sabbath 
abode;  but  the  prevarication  must  be  conscienti- 
ously performed  and  he  must  say,  "My  Sabbath 
place  shall  be  at  its  trunk."  For  if  he  said  only, 
"My  Sabbath  place  shall  be  under  it,"  this  did 
not  hold  good,  because  it  was  too  general  and  in- 
definite. 

The  meddling  extended  to  points  far  more 
deep-seated  and  vital  than  those  just  mentioned 
and  obligations  to  parents,  the  sanctity  of  mar- 
riage, and  fidelity  to  the  solemnly  administered 
oath  were  all  profaned  by  the  touch  of  the 
same  light  hands.  Deuteronomy  xxiv,  i,  was  mis- 
interpreted to  mean  that  a  man  might  put  away 
his  wife  if  she  should  spoil  his  food  or  if  he  found 
another  fairer  than  she.  Instead  of  contributing 
to  the  support  of  his  aged  parents,  a  son  might 
say  of  the  money  which  should  have  been  used  for 
this  purpose,  "It  is  Corban,"  that  is,  given  to 
God,  and  thus  elude  the  commandment,  "Honor 
thy  father  and  thy  mother." 


ABSURDITIES  OF  LEGALISM  195 

It  was  indeed  true  of  the  spiritual  leaders  of 
the  people  that  they  paid  "tithes  of  anise  and 
mint  and  cummin  and  omitted  the  weighter  mat- 
ters of  the  law,  judgment,  mercy  and  faith;  de- 
voured widow's  houses  and  for  a  pretence  made 
long  prayers  in  the  market  place,  made  clean 
the  outside  of  the  cup  and  the  platter  but  within 
they  were  full  of  extortion  and  excess.1' 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    SCRIBES/   THE    PHARISEES,    THE    SADDUCEES 
AND  THE  ESSENES 

When  the  voice  of  prophecy  had  been  silenced 
by  the  voice  of  the  law,  the  authority  of  priest 
and  prophet  was  supplanted  by  that  of  the  law- 
yer or  scribe,  and  the  reverence  rendered  the  oral 
tradition  was  extended  to  its  custodian  and  inven- 
tor. In  Galilee,  Babylon,  Judea  and  the  cities 
of  the  dispersion,  wherever  the  message  of  the 
sacred  scrolls  had  been  borne,  the  scribe  per- 
formed his  conspicuous  and  manifold  duties.  He 
made  plain  intricate  and  obscure  passages  of 
scripture;  he  elaborated  ancient  laws  and  created 
new  ones  till  every  possible  emergency  was  pro- 
vided for ;  he  preached  in  the  synagogue  and  took 
his  place  beside  elders  and  high  priests  in  courts 
of  justice.  "No  one  could  be  born,  circumcised, 
brought  up,  educated,  betrothed,  married  or  bur- 
ied— no  one  could  celebrate  the  Sabbath  or  other 
feasts  or  begin  a  business,  or  make  a  contract, 
or  kill  a  beast  for  food,  or  even  bake  bread,  with- 
out the  advice  or  presence  of  a  Rabbi."  In  his 

196 


JEWISH  SECTS  197 

own  estimation  and  that  of  his  followers,  he  was 
"the  well  plastered  pit  filled  with  the  water  of 
knowledge  out  of  which  not  one  drop  can  escape" 
and  the  "divine  aristocrat  among  the  vulgar  herd 
of  rude  and  profane  country  people  who  know  not 
the  law  and  are  accursed."  He  exacted  from 
his  pupils  in  extreme  measure  the  reverence  in 
which  the  American -boys  and  girls  of  the  present 
generation  are  sadly  deficient.  As  the  spirit- 
ual sponsor  of  his  people,  he  believed  he  had  per- 
formed for  them  a  greater  service  than  their 
earthly  parents;  consequently,  if  a  father  and 
a  teacher  bore  burdens  and  both  needed  assist- 
ance, the  son  and  pupil  must  first  aid  his  teacher; 
or  if  a  man's  teacher  and  his  father  had  both  been 
sold  into  captivity,  the  teacher  must  first  be  ran- 
somed and  then  the  father.  Pupils  must  assent 
to  any  statement  that  their  master  made,  no 
matter  how  startling  or  incredible  it  might 
be.  The  vanity  and  self-esteem  fostered 
by  this  unreasoning  homage  sometimes  resulted 
in  claims  that  were  both  blasphemous  and  de- 
grading; and  a  story  of  a  certain  learned  Rabbi 
who  was  said  to  have  been  called  by  God  to 
heaven  to  confirm  His  opinion  in  a  dispute  which 
had  taken  place  between  Himself  and  the  angels, 
is  actually  recorded  in  the  Talmud.  No  wonder 
that  in  three  of  the  gospels,  the  scribes  are  con- 
demned by  Christ  for  loving  the  uppermost 


198          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

rooms  at  feasts  and  the  chief  seats  in  the  syna- 
gogue and  to  be  called  of  men  "Rabbi!  Rabbi!" 

The  fact  that  scribes  were  prohibited  from  re- 
ceiving money  for  teaching,  preaching  or  pro- 
nouncing judgment  and  must  often  live  lives  of 
poverty  and  self-sacrifice  doubtless  won  the  con- 
fidence and  respect  of  their  followers.  "Make 
the  law  neither  a  crown  wherewith  to  make  a 
show  nor  a  spade  wherewith  to  dig"  and  "He 
who  uses  the  crown  (of  the  law)  for  external 
aims  fades  away"  were  sayings  which  contributed 
to  the  effectiveness  of  their  authority,  and  it  is 
still  a  Jewish  proverb  that  a  fat  Rabbi  is  little 
worth. 

The  rule  in  regard  to  receiving  recompense  for 
official  services,  although  sometimes  modified  in 
the  case  of  teachers,  was  generally  observed;  and 
unless  a  Rabbi  was  financially  independent,  he 
must  learn  a  trade  by  means  of  which  he  might 
earn  a  livelihood  for  himself  and  his  family. 
Hillel,  the  most  famous  of  all  the  scribes,  sup- 
ported himself  by  the  work  of  his  hands  and  other 
Rabbis  of  repute  earned  their  living  by 
needle-making,  shoe-making,  and  fashioning 
articles  from  metal,  St.  Paul,  who  was  also  a 
Rabbi,  weaving  covers  for  tents  to  earn  his 
daily  bread.  As  the  greater  proportion  of 
a  Rabbi's  time  must  be  spent  in  attending 
to  professional  duties,  he  could  gain  only  scanty 


JEWISH  SECTS  199 

subsistence  from  trade;  but,  in  spite  of  his  pov- 
erty, he  was  cordially  received  into  wealthy  Jew- 
ish families  and  often  found  an  escape  from  hard- 
ship in  marriage,  for  the  honor  of  becoming 
either  the  father-in-law  or  son-in-law  of  a  Rabbi 
more  than  compensated  for  the  expense  incurred 
in  his  support. 

It  was  a  scribe's  first  duty  to  make  himself 
thoroughly  conversant  with  both  the  oral  and 
written  law,  a  task  at  least  partially  accomplished 
in  youth  by  attending  one  of  those  houses  of  in- 
struction where  young  men  eager  for  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  gathered  about  famous  Rabbis. 
The  mastery  of  the  oral  tradition  was  made  es- 
pecially difficult  by  the  fact  that  it  was  not  com- 
mitted to  writing,  and  the  thousands  of  minutiae 
of  which  it  consisted  must  be  laboriously  memo- 
rized by  numerous  repetitions  on  the  part  of  both 
teacher  and  pupil.  The  monotony  o-f  this  weari- 
some method  was  sometimes  broken  by  a  series 
of  questions  in  the  discussion  of  which  the  pupils 
were  allowed  to  join,  or  by  Haggadic  legends  of  a 
lively  character  with  which  the  Rabbis  enter- 
tained their  pupils.  Students  were  especially 
warned  against  any  slip  of  memory  or  repeating 
a  precept  in  other  than  the  exact  words  in  which 
it  was  imparted  to  them,  the  great  Hillel  himself 
purposely  mispronouncing  a  word  because  his 
teacher  had  committed  the  same  error. 


200         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

But  the  mastery  of  the  law  as  it  stood  was  only 
the  beginning  of  a  scribe's  study,  for  new 
laws  to  meet  real  or  possible  contigencies  must  be 
constantly  created,  and  Rabbinical  schools  of 
highest  rank  were  those  in  which  noted  Rabbis 
met  to  prolong  and  separate  into  more  and  more 
infinitesmal  strands  the  never-ending  thread  of 
the  oral  tradition.  The  results  of  the  scribes' 
discussions  at  first  had  no  bearing  upon  actual 
life,  but  as  their  opinions  gained  in  repute,  theory 
became  established  law  and  a  decision  upon 
which  a  majority  of  the  learned  had  agreed  must 
be  recognized  and  obeyed.  These  schools  cen- 
tered about  Jerusalem,  the  discussions  sometimes 
taking  plaice  in  the  outer  courts  of  the  temple  or 
beneath  the  colonnades  of  its  porches. 

Since  a  scribe's  actual  knowledge  of  the  law 
made  him  a  desirable  judge,  he  was  frequently 
appointed  to  sentence  offenders  in  minor  courts 
of  justice  and  was  among  the  prominent  members 
of  the  great  Sanhedrin.  After  the  fall  of  Jeru- 
salem in  A.  D.  70  when  the  Sanhedrin  was  dis- 
solved and  the  temple  worship  necessarily  aban- 
doned, the  Rabbis  as  the  only  leaders  of  the 
people,  gained  such  absolute  authority  both  as 
legislators  and  judges  that  the  decree  or  sentence 
of  one  scribe  of  distinction  was  voluntarily 
obeyed.  (It  is  related  that  Rabbi  Akiha  once  con- 
demned a  man  to  pay  a  fine  of  400  denarii  for  un- 


JEWISH  SECTS  201 

covering  his  head  to  a  woman  in  the  street).  In* 
addition  to  his  other  duties,  the  Rabbi  was  more 
frequently  called  to  preach  in  the  synagogue  than 
any  other  member  of  the  congregation,  and  the 
preservation  of  the  ancient  text  of  Scripture 
from  interpolations  also  fell  to  his  lot. 

The  most  famous  of  all  the  scribes  were  Hillel 
and  Shammai,  the  leaders  of  two  rival  schools 
existing  at  Jerusalem  in  the*  reign  of  Herod  the 
Great.  The  accounts  of  their  lives  which  have 
been  handed  down  to  us  are  many  of  them  leg- 
endary. It  is  said  that  Hillel  came  from  his 
birthplace  Babylon  to  Jerusalem  that  he  might 
attend  the  school  of  Shemeaiah  and  Abtalion. 
As  he  was  a  day  laborer  with  a  family  dependent 
on  him  for  -support,  he  was  one  Friday  night 
unable  to  pay  the  small  entrance  fee  which  the 
school  demanded  and  in  spite  of  the  bitter  cold 
and  falling  snow,  climbed  up  to  the  window  of 
the  house  of  instruction  to  overhear  the  words 
of  his  famous  masters.  The  discussion  continued 
all  night  and  when  at  the  approach  of  daylight,  a 
darkened  window  attracted  the  attention  of 
Shemeaiah,  the  numb  and  half  frozen  form  of 
Hillel  was  discovered.  The  ambitious  pupil  was 
brought  into  the  warm  school-room  and 
restored  to  consciousness  by  the  ministrations 
of  his  teachers  who  declared  that  such 
zeal  as  his  justified  a  transgression  olf  the 


202         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

Sabbath  .law.  In  his  thirst  for  learning, 
Hillel  is  said  to  have  acquired  knowledge  of 
a  novel  sort,  becoming  conversant  with  the  lan- 
guage of  mountains,  valleys,  plants,  trees,  wild 
beasts  and  demons,  as  well  as  the  tongues  of  all 
races  and  nations  of  men.  His  gentleness  and 
love  of  peace  as  well  as  his  learning  was  pro- 
verbial. The  most  famous  of  the  many  wise  say- 
ings attributed  to  him  is  that  in  which  he  summa- 
rized the  law  for  the  benefit  of  a  heathen.  "What 
you  would  yourself  dislike  never  do  to  your  neigh- 
bor; that  is  the  whole  law,  all  else  is  only  its 
application." 

Whether  Shammai  was  one  and  the  same  as 
that  Sameas  or  Shammai  who  alone  of  all  the 
Sanhedrin  dared  to  condemn  the  youthful  Herod 
when  he  was  brought  before  the  great  assembly 
for  trial,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Tradition  tells 
us  that  he  was  noted  for  his  severity,  insisting 
that  his  infant  grandson  should  observe  the  Feast 
of  Tabernacles  when  only  a  day  old;  and  his  rigid 
maintenance  of  all  the  details  of  the  oral  tra- 
dition is  said  to  have  made  his  followers  more 
numerous  than  those  of  the  gentle  Hillel. 

A  scribe  might  be  either  a  Pharisee  or  a  Sad- 
ducee  but  from  his  nature  which  was  in  many  re- 
spects identical  with  that  of  the  Pharisees,  he 
more  often  belonged  to  the  latter  party.  The 
Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees  sprang  from  two 


JEWISH  SECTS  203 

divergent  and  often  conflicting  tendencies  of  long 
standing.  The  Pharisees  were  the  strictly  legal 
party,  the  concentrated  essence  of  that  phase  of 
Judaism  which  had  originated  with  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah.  As  the  Chasidim  or  "pious,"  they 
had  suffered  martyrdom  under  Antiochus  Epi- 
phanes  and  had  sacrificed  life  and  property  in  the 
desperate  conflict  for  religious  freedom  under 
Judas  Maccabeus.  At  first  the  friends  and  loyal 
supporters  of  the  Asmonean  monarchs,  they  be- 
came the  bitttr  opponents  of  John  Hyrcanus  when 
he  had  made  law  and  religion  secondary  to  politi- 
cal advancement,  and  it  was  during  his  reign  that 
they  first  received  the  name  of  Pharisees  and  Sep- 
aratists. They  were  completely  dominated  by 
one  idea,  that  of  the  law,  and  looked  out  upon 
life  from  its  contracted  viewpoint,  vigorously  op- 
posing as  evil  all  that  conflicted  with  its  letter. 
(Political  independence  and  material  prosperity 
which  would  involve  contact  with  profane  and 
unclean  nations,  were  resigned  in  the  hope  that 
they  might  be  amply  restored  at  the  coming  of 
the  promised  Messiah;  and  the  burdensome  law 
was  kept  by  faithful  Pharisees  with  scrupulous  ex- 
actness because  of  the  reward  which  awaited  its 
disciple  in  heaven.  The  consistency  with  which 
they  maintained  the  supremacy  of  their  ideal  gave 
them  a  lasting  vitality  and  such  a  tremendous  in- 
fluence over  the  people  that  the  Sadducees  were 


204         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

often  forced  to  submit  to  their  demands  to  retain 
a  place  in  the  Sanhedrin.  The  two  conflicting  be- 
liefs that  God  directs  the  most  ordinary  events 
of  every  day  life — even  if  a  man  should  cut  his 
finger  it  was  the  belief  of  the  Pharisees  that  the 
accident  had  been  preordained  by  God — and  that 
human  beings  are  themselves  responsible  for 
what  they  do  and  say  sometimes  led  the  Phar- 
isees to  odd  inconsistencies  in  conduct.  When, 
for  instance,  Herod  the  Great  with  the  Romans 
besieged  Jerusalem,  the  Pharisees  commanded 
the  people  to  open  the  gates  of  the  city  to  the  be- 
sieging army  as  it  was  the  will  of  God  that  they 
should  submit  to  the  rule  of  the  heathen;  but 
when  a  few  days  later,  they  were  ordered  to  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Rome,  they  refused  to 
do  so  because  God  was  their  king  and  it  was  their 
duty  to  obey  Him  alone. 

The  order  or  fraternity  in  which  Pharisaism 
reached  its  climax  was  comparatively  limited  in 
number,  consisting  according  to  Josephus,  of  six 
thousand  members.  To  join  this  exclusive  league, 
the  applicant  must  take  a  vow  in  the  presence  of 
three  Rabbis  to  abstain  from  everything  which 
had  not  been  tithed  and  to  observe  the  numerous 
laws  of  cleanness  and  uncleanness.  One  might  if 
he  chose,  become  a  Neeman  or  accredited  one 
with  whom  it  was  safe  to  engage  in  commerce  by 
taking  only  the  first  of  these  vows;  but  he  could 


JEWISH  SECTS  205 

become  a  Chaber  or  Pharisee  of  highest  rank 
only  when  he  had  pledged  himself  to  observe  both" 
classes  of  restrictions.  The  vow  in  regard  to 
tithing  led  to  all  sorts  of  complications  as  it  pro- 
hibited one  who  had  taken  it  from  buying  of  a 
Gentile  or  receiving  hospitality  from  any  but  his 
own  nation,  and  made  it  imperative  that  every 
fruit  merchant  and  grocer  should  join  the  fra- 
ternity. A  Chaber  would  no  more  associate 
with  an  Amhaarez  or  countryman  who  knew  not 
the  law  and  was  accursed  than  a  Jew  of  ordinary 
rank  would  associate  with  a  Gentile'.  According 
to  the  Mishna  "He  who  takes  upon  himself  to  be 
a  Chaber  sells  neither  fresh  nor  dry  fruit  to  the 
Amhaarez,  buys  from  them  no  fresh  fruit,  does 
not  enter  their  houses  as  a  guest,  nor  receive  them 
as  guests  within  their  walls." 

The  isolated  pedestal  upon  which  a  Pharisee 
was  placed  by  his  vows  gave  him  a  sense  of  self- 
satisfied  sanctity  and  superiority,  although  his 
obligations  became  finally  so  numerous  and  bur- 
densome that  he  not  infrequently  evaded  them. 
In  the  time  of  Christ,  the  lofty  ideal  of  the 
Maccabean  martyrs  had  been  supplanted  by 
vanity  and  insincerity,  and  even  in  the  Talmud, 
the  "plague  of  Pharisaism"  is  slightingly  spoken 
of.  A  silly  pietist,  a  clever  sinner,  and  a  female 
Pharisee  are  ranked  among  the  troubles  of  life; 
and  in  both  the  Talmuds,  seven  kinds  of  Phar- 


206         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

isees  are  enumerated,  only  one  of  which  is  said  to 
be  the  true  Pharisee  or  Pharisee  from  love. 

Opposed  to  the  extremes  of  the  Pharisees 
were  the  Sadducees,  the  nobles  and  aristocrats  of 
jjudea,  from  whose  ranks  the  high  priest  was 
chosen.  Throughout  the  long  years  of  Persian 
and  Greek  dominance,  the  high  priest  had  been 
the  political  as  well  as  the  religious  head  of  the 
nation,  and  had  been  entrusted  with  whatever 
power  the  Gentile  masters  of  Israel  had  seen  fit 
to  confer  upon  the  nation.  The  family  of  the 
presiding  prince  and  high  priest,  and  the  families 
from  which  former  high  priests  had  been  chosen 
held  the  highest  social  positions  in  Judea.  The 
wealth  obtained  from  their  various  emoluments, 
the  tithes  and  first  fruits  which  the  law  compelled 
the  people  to  pay  for  their  support,  afforded  them 
superior  advantages  for  education  and  enlight- 
enment. Their  horizon  had  moreover  been 
broadened  by  friendly  relations  with  heathen  kings 
and  contact  with  the  Greek  culture  which  many  of 
them  had  adopted.  Among  them  were  the  Hel- 
lenists who  had  shirked  their  part  in  the  Macca- 
bean  uprising — a  delinquency  for  which  the  Chas- 
idim  had  never  forgiven  them — and  the  broader 
minded  followers  of  Judas  Maccabeus  who  had 
favored  his  alliance  with  Rome.  When  Judas 
Hyrcanus'  policy  of  political  advancement  had 
made  a  break  with  the  Pharisees  necessary,  his 


JEWISH  SECTS  207 

priestly  supporters  first  received  the  name  Sad- 
ducee,  a  word  derived  from  Zadok,  the  name  of 
the  high  priest  who  officiated  in  the  reign  of 
Solomon  and  whose  family  was  still  prominent 
in  Jerusalem. 

The  most  pronounced  distinction  between  the 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees  lay  in  their  attitude  to- 
ward the  oral  tradition  which  the  Sadducees  did 
not  consider  binding  and  kept  or  broke  at  will. 
With  their  superior  enlightenment,  they  could  not 
fail  to  see  the  absurdity  an4  pettiness  of  the  ex- 
tremes of  Pharisaism.  It  was  moreover  im- 
possible for  them  to  maintain  its  exclusive  laws  of 
cleanness  and  uncleanness,  and  at  the  same  time 
make  the  alliances  with  heathen-  nations  which 
their  policy  of  political  advancement  demanded. 
As  the  New  Testament  indicates,  they  did  not  be- 
lieve- in  the  resurrection  of  the  body;  and  their 
idea  of  the  hereafter  of  the  soul  was  an  existence 
in  Sheol  so  vague  and  distorted  that  they  pre- 
ferred to  labor  for  the  things  which  could  be  seen 
and  handled,  rather  than  risk  all  for  the  shadowy 
and  uncertain  blessings  of  a  world  to  come.  Grad- 
ually their  materialism  and  indifference  to  Phar- 
isaic ideals  had  created  a  schism  between  them- 
selves and  the  people  until  in  the  time  of  Christ, 
oddly  enough,  the  scribes  and  lawyers  had  be- 
come the  clergy  of  the  nation  and  the  priests  its 
noi)les  and  politicians.  "Improbable  as  it  may 


208         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

seem  they  were  the  real  patriots  with  the  motto 
Israel  above  all !  Israel's  honor,  Israel's  dignity 
and  Israel's  freedom  were  their  guiding  stars." 

Until  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  the  Sadducees 
controlled  the  political  affairs  of  the  nation,  but 
when  the  Jews  no  longer  existed  politically,  the 
Sadducees  also  ceased  to  exist  and  even  their  own 
people  did  not  know  what  the  principles  of  the 
party  had  been. 

Apart  from  the  soil  and  grime  of  Jewish 
public  life,  which  neither  the  Pharisees  nor  the 
Sadducees  had  altogether  escaped,  there  lived  in 
the  second  century  before  Christ  yet  another  sect, 
the  Essenes,  who,  like  mystics  and  ascetics  of  all 
generations,  the  monks  of  mediaeval  ages  and 
our  own  respected  Shakers,  strove  to  reach  ideal 
peace  and  purity  by  withdrawing  from  the  world 
and  living  in  seclusion  a  life  of  simplicity  and 
righteousness.  Their  largest  settlement  was  on 
the  oasis  of  Engedi  by  the  Dead  Sea;  but  isolated 
houses  of  the  order  might  be  found  in  every 
large  town  of  Palestine.  The  society  consisted 
of  about  four  thousand  men  and  women,  and 
could  be  entered  only  after  three  years'  probation. 
Each  community  was  presided  over  by  a  presi- 
dent to  whom  its  members  must  render  implicit 
obedience  and  to  whom  candidates  might  apply 
for  admission.  After  one  year  of  probation,  the 
novice  was  allowed  to  share  the  purifying  lus- 


JEWISH  SECTS  209 

trations  of  the  order  and  when  two  more  years 
of  faithful  service  had  passed,  a  fearful  oath  to 
conceal  nothing  from  his  brethren  and  to  pre- 
serve the  secrets  of  the  order  from  outsiders 
made  him  a  member  in  good  standing,  and  he 
was  admitted  to  the  common  meals. 

The  Essene  was  relieved  from  the  burdens  of 
poverty  and  temptations  of  wealth  by  the  law 
which  allowed  him  to  accumulate  no  property,  but 
required  him  rather  to  depend  for  the  necessities 
of  daily  life  upon  the  common  purse,  the  contents 
of  which  were  shared  by  all  the  brethren.  Who- 
ever entered  the  order  delivered  over  houses, 
slaves,  flocks  or  any  other  property  he  possessed 
to  a  common  manager,  and  the  daily  wages  of 
each  member  also  replenished  the  common  purse 
which  provided  for  the  needs  of  all.  Common 
food  and  common  clothing,  overalls  for  winter 
and  white  linen  robes  for  the  sacrificial  feasts, 
were  purchased  by  chosen  managers;  and  any 
member  who  wished  to  aid  the  poor  might 
borrow  from  the  common  store,  the  extent  of  his 
charity  being  restricted  only  in  the  case  of  rela- 
tives. Sick  or  aged  Essenes  need  feel  no  anxiety 
about  their  support,  as  they  were  tenderly  cared 
for  by  young  and  healthy  members  of  the  order 
and  their  every  want  supplied  from  the  common 
purse. 

Each  day  the  Essene  followed  the  same  routine. 


210         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

rising  early  in  the  morning  and  praying  with  his 
face  turned  toward  the  rising  -sun  before  he 
uttered  a  'profane'  or  secular  word.  He  then 
went  to  his  labor  which  was  most  frequently  agri- 
culture. Trade  was  forbidden  because  it  might 
lead  to  covetousness,  but  any  sort  of  handicraft 
except  the  manufacture  of  weapons  was  permis- 
sible. He  returned  from  work  in  time  to  don  his 
white  linen  robe  before  going  to  the  common 
dining  hall  where  a  priest  who  was  also  the  baker, 
served  all  with  bread  and  vegetables.  No  one 
was  permitted  to  taste  the  food  until  prayer  had 
been  offered  by  the  priest  who  also  prayed  at  the 
end  of  the  meal.  After  all  had  honored  God  as 
the  giver  of  food,  they  changed  their  robes  and 
returned  to  their  work  until  time  for  the  evening 
meal,  which  was  conducted  in  exactly  the  same 
way. 

The  integrity  of  the  Essenes  was  such  that  they 
were  more  respected  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
than  any  other  class  of  Jews.  They  were  excessively 
frugal,  honest  and  modest.  Slavery  was  abol- 
ished in  their  communities,  swearing  was  for- 
bidden, and  every  word  that  was  said  by  them  was 
more  reliable  than  the  oath  of  other  men. 
Shoes  and  clothing  were  not  thrown  aside  until 
they  were  utterly  useless  and  at  their  meals,  they 
were  "contented  with  the  same  dish  day  by  day, 
loving  sufficiency  and  rejecting  great  expense  as 


JEWISH  SECTS  211 

harmful  to  both  mind  and  body."  Marriage  was 
forsworn,  but  children  were  adopted  by  the  adult 
members  of  the  order  to  be  trained  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  Essenism. 

Their  origin,  even  the  derivation  of  their  name, 
is  wrapped  in  mystery  and  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  speculation.  Many  of  their  beliefs  and 
customs  indicate  that  the  order  was  a  peculiar 
offshoot  from  the  root  of  Judaism;  others  that  a 
Hellenistic  graft  had  been  joined  with  the  Phari- 
saic stem.  Like  the  Jews,  they  believed  that  God 
was  the  author  of  an  unalterable  faith  and 
esteemed  the  law  and  law-giver  above  all  else, 
punishing  with  death  anyone  who  blasphemed  the 
name  of  Moses.  The  Sabbath  was  even  more 
strictly  kept  by  them  than  by  the  Pharisees,  and 
their  laws  of  separation  and  purification  were 
exaggerated  phases  of  Pharisaic  rules.  They 
would  not  move  a  dish  from  its  place  upon  the 
Sabbath,  and  contact  with  a  member  of  a  lower 
order  made  a  purifying  lustration  necessary. 
Certain  other  characteristics,  their  efforts  for  sim- 
plicity of  life,  their  rejection  of  trade,  their  ab- 
stinence and  frugality  were  alien  to  the  ideals  of 
Pharisees.  Even  more  completely  removed 
from  the  realm  of  Pharisaism  was  their  attitude 
toward  animal  sacrifice  which  they  completely 
repudiated,  and  in  which  they  refused  to  partici- 
pate. They  chose  their  own  priests  from  the 


212          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

descendants  of  the  house  of  Aaron,  and  expressed 
their  respect  for  Jewish  authorities  by  sending 
gifts  of  incense  to  the  temple. 

Their  reverence  for  the  sun  in  whose  brightness 
they  beheld  an  emblem  of  the  divine  radiance  was 
also  a  departure  from  the  traditions  of  Judaism. 
When  they  prayed,  they  did  not  turn  their  faces 
toward  the  Holy  of  Holies  at  Jerusalem,  but 
rather  toward  the  light  of  the  Sun.  They  also 
refrained  from  committing  any  unclean  act  in  the 
presence  of  the  great  luminary  lest  they  offend  its 
brightness.  These  customs  point  toward  mingled 
Hellenistic  and  Oriental  influences  but  if,  as  Jose- 
phus  would  have  us  believe,  the  Essenes  taught 
the  pre-existence  of  the  soul  and  believed  that  the 
body  was  its  prison,  it  must  be  true  that  Hellen- 
ism and  especially  the  philosophy  of  the  Greek 
Pythagoras  had  much  to  do  with  the  molding  of 
this  exemplary  order,  which  is  called  by  Ewald 
the  conscience  of  the  Jewish  nation. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

HELLENISM  AND   JUDAISM 

The  Hellenism  brought  to  the  East  by  Alexan- 
der the  Great  was,  as  we  have  seen,  gently  and 
gradually  drawing  the  Jews  into  its  magnetic  and 
friendly  current  when  they  were  startled  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  their  imperiled  individuality  by  the 
barbaric  violence  of  Antiochus  Ephiphanes;  and 
the  influx  of  Greek  culture  was  abruptly  checked 
by  the  persecution  and  the  subsequent  victories 
of  the  Maccabees.  But  the  triumph  was  not 
final.  Hellenism  was  too  intangible  and  subtle 
a  force  to  be  destroyed  by  the  sword  and,  like  a 
contagious  disease,  was  checked  in  one  place  only 
to  break  out  in  another.  It  had  become  a  part 
of  the  Eastern  atmosphere  and  its  influence  upon 
every  phase  of  Oriental  life  was  as  inescapable 
and  irresistible  as  that  of  the  sun  or  rain  upon 
vegetation.  "It  was  to  become  the  culture  of  the 
world  and  its  tide  could  not  be  turned.  Like 
other  nations,  the  Jews  must  submit  to  the  time 
spirit,  that  tyrranos  who  rules  all  in  their  think- 
ing, speaking,  and  doing  whether  they  list  or  not." 

213 


214          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

The  Asmonean  monarchs,  whose  ancestors  the 
Maccabees,  had  so  violently  opposed  Hellenism 
gave  their  children  Greek  names,  employed  for- 
eign mercenaries,  issued  foreign  coins;  and  one 
of  their  number  was  the  openly  avowed  Triend 
and  disciple  of  the  Greeks.  The  Roman  con- 
querors of  Greece  had  also  succumbed  to  the  se- 
duction of  Greek  culture,  and  at  the  coming  of 
the  Romans  and  the  Herodians,  a  new  wave  of 
mingled  Latin  and  Greek  culture  swept  over 
Palestine. 

A  survey  of  Palestine  in  the  reign  of  Herod  the 
Great  shows  how  deeply  dyed  in  Hellenism  was 
nearly  every  phase  of  Oriental  life.  In  the  chain 
of  Gentile  cities  which  encircled  the  central  Jewish 
provinces,  Judea,  Perea,  and  Galilee,  Hellenism 
had  met  with  no  opposition  and  an  amalgamation 
of  Greek  and  Oriental  culture  in  which  Hellenism 
was  the  dominant  element,  prevailed.  The 
Philistines  and  Phoenicians  worshipped  the  gods 
of  the  Greeks,  and  their  coins  bore  the  images  of 
Zeus,  Athene,  Pan  and  other  Greek  divinities. 
In  Caesarea  and  many  of  the  coast  towns,  temples 
to  the  Caesars  had  been  erected  by  Herod  the 
Great,  and  the  games  so  closely  linked  with  the 
religious  rites  of  the  Romans  had  also  been  estab- 
lished by  him.  Even  better  proofs  of  their 
deeply  Hellenistic  spirit  were  the  men  prominent 
in  Greek  letters  who  were  produced  by  them, 


HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  215 

Antiochus,  a  teacher  of  Cicero,  the  grammarian 
Ptolemais,  and  Theodorus,  the  tutor  of  the  Em- 
peror Tiberius,  all  emanating  from  these  outer 
cities  of  Palestine. 

An  abundance  of  Greek  and  Latin  words  found 
in  the  Mishna  indicate  that,  in  the  central  prov- 
inces, the  scribes'  hatred  of  Hellenism  had  not 
affected  other  departments  of  life  than  religion; 
for  the  government,  military  service,  trade  and 
industry,  art,  social  life,  fashions  and  ornaments 
of  these  provinces  all  bowed  before  the  superiority 
of  Greek  intelligence  and  bore  the  impress  of  the 
Greek  mind.  The  Greek  names  by  which  the 
governor,  the  soldiers,  and  the  weapons  of  Pales- 
tine were  designated  bore  witness  to  their  Hellen- 
istic origin,  and  public  baths  and  inns  also  bore 
Greek  names.  Public  games  like  those  swept 
away  by  the  persecution  had  been  again  introduced 
by  Herod  and  although  the  Pharisees  disapproved 
of  them,  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  they 
were  not  well  attended.  The  many  buildings 
erected  by  Herod  the  Great  were  of  the  Graeco- 
Roman  style  of  architecture,  the  penetrating 
Hellenistic  culture  intruding  even  upon  the  fore- 
courts of  the  Jewish  temple  itself  with  its  Corin- 
thian pillars  and  fluted  colonnades.  In  commerce 
also,  the  Jews  of  Palestine  imitated  the  customs 
of  their  heathen  neighbors,  buying  and  selling  for 
Roman  coin  with  Greek  inscriptions,  the  luxuries 


216          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

and  necessities  used  by  the  great  Gentile  world 
with  which  they  were  surrounded.  Trading  with 
heathen  neighbors  had  made  a  slight  knowledge 
of  the  Greek  language  general,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  it  was  well-known  among  the  educated 
classes. 

In  one  instance  only  had  the  progress  of  Hellen- 
ism been  successfully  arrested.  Every  approach 
to  Judaism  had  been  doubly  locked  and  barred 
against  Greek  idolatry  by  the  ceaseless  activity  of 
the  scribes.  The  Mosaic  commandment  uThou 
shalt  not  make  unto  thyself  any  graven  image, 
or  any  likeness  of  anything"  was  so  literally  inter- 
preted that  statues  of  men,  birds,  or  beasts  used 
for  ornamental  purposes  only,  must  be  rigorously 
banished.  The  images  with  which  Herod  had 
adorned  his  palace  at  Jerusalem  were  regarded 
with  abhorrence,  and  when  Pilate  entered  Judea 
with  the  Roman  ;eagles  at  the  head  of  his  legions, 
there  was  a  tumultuous  uprising.  The  Jews  were 
forbidden  to  transact  business  of  any  sort  with 
Gentiles  three  days  before  and  three  days  after 
a  heathen  festival;  and  a  ban  was  placed  upon 
articles  connected  in  any  way  with  heathen 
worship. 

One  Hellenistic  wedge  alone  pierced  the  bar- 
riers of  Pharisaism.  The  great  labor  and  pains 
expended  upon  compiling  the  Hebrew  edition  of 
the  sacred  books  had  made  them  very  expensive 


HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  217 

and  their  price  had  placed  them  quite  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  common  people.  In  Rome,  on  the 
contrary,  hundreds  of  slaves  were  employed  in 
copying  what  one  dictated,  and  their  gratuitous 
labor  had  reduced  the  price  of  Greek  and  Roman 
manuscripts  until  the  cost  of  the  Septuagint  or 
Greek  version  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  was  only 
about  twice  that  of  our  present  people's  edition. 
The  comparatively  low  cost  of  the  Septuagint  had 
made  it  the  Bible  commonly  used  in  Galilee  and 
even  in  Judea,  and  the  Apocryphal  books  which 
it  included  afforded  its  readers  a  glimpse  into  the 
fascinating,  but  forbidden  regions  of  Greek  phil- 
osophy. Although  these  books  were  placed  by 
Jewish  scholars  many  degrees  below  the  level  of 
the  canonical  books  of  the  Bible,  the  glorification 
of  Jews  and  Judaism  in  which  their  authors  in- 
dulged won  the  favor  of  the  Rabbis;  but  how 
sternly  any  inclination  to  stray  farther  along  the 
paths  of  Hellenistic  thought  was  repressed  is  in- 
dicated by  the  story  of  a  young  Rabbi  who  after 
mastering  every  phase  of  the  Jewish  law,  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  study  Greek  philosophy.  A 
venerable  uncle  checked  his  profane  longing  by 
quoting  Joshua  i,  8  and  saying  "Go  and  search 
what  is  that  hour  which  is  neither  of  the  day  nor 
night  and  in  it  thou  mayest  study  Greek  philoso- 
phy/' These  Jewish  Rabbis  had  yet  to  learn  that 
true  piety  reaches  out  beyond  itself  and  that  the 


218          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

deepest  and  most  sincere  religious  belief  goes 
hand  in  hand  with  inquiry.  Under  the  sway  of 
the  scribes,  the  atmosphere  of  Judea  had  become 
too  stifling  for  the  development  of  that  precious 
germ  of  revelation  which  the  Jews  had  borne 
down  through  the  ages;  for  the  wondrous  reve- 
lation their  authorities  were  soon  to  reject. 

But  while  ancient  Judaism,  behind  the  con- 
tracted barriers  she  had  erected,  held  fast  to  the 
shell  of  the  oral  tradition,  looking  with  pride  upon 
its  curious  convolutions,  listening  ever  and  anon  to 
its  hollow  murmur,  the  Jews  of  the  dispersion  in 
Alexandria  were  forging  the  first  links  in  the 
chain  which  was  to  bind  Hellenism  to  Judaism 
and  through  it,  to  Christianity.  Transplanted 
from  insulated  Judea  to  the  city  which  bore  the 
name  of  its  great  founder  and  over  which  his 
tutor  Aristotle  held  sway,  they  breathed  a  freer 
air,  led  a  more  untrammeled  life.  Under  the 
friendly  rule  of  the  Ptolemies,  the  Jews  were  the 
only  colonists  in  Alexandria  to  receive  political 
privileges  equal  to  those  of  the  Greeks,  and 
although  they  lived  in  a  community  by  themselves 
and  were  governed  by  their  own  alabarch,  the 
exigencies  of  trade  and  of  the  other  occupations 
by  which  they  earned  a  livelihood  had  made  them 
Hellenists,  that  is,  Jews  who  spoke  the  language 
and  adopted  the  customs  of  their  Greek  neigh- 
bors. The  brilliant  Greek  culture  which  they  met 


HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  219 

daily  in  the  market-place  and  the  forum  could  not 
fail  to  appeal  to  the  Jewish  mind;  but  notwith- 
standing its  fascination,  the  Alexandrian  immi- 
grants were  still  loyal  Jews,  faithfully  and  proudly 
maintaining  the  services  of  the  synagogue  and 
looking  with  contempt  upon  the  frivolity  of  the 
Greeks  and  their  barbaric  and  meaningless  re- 
ligious rites.  While  other  colonists,  even  those 
who  had  a  faith  of  their  own,  joined  in  worship- 
ping the  gods  of  their  home  town  the  Jews  stead- 
fastly refused  to  participate  in  idolatry  of  any 
kind  or  to  join  in  emperor  worship  when  it  be- 
came prevalent.  The  abruptness  with  which 
Judaism  stood  out  against  the  background  of  the 
Graeco-Roman  world  while  all  other  religions 
blended  with  it,  made  it  a  conspicuous  point  of 
attack.  It  incurred  the  criticism  and  hostility  of 
the  Greeks,  and  accusations  of  all  kinds  emanated 
from  the  heathen  Alexandrians. 

The  Jews  had  made  no  contribution  to  world 
culture,  they  declared.  Their  origin  was  in- 
ferior, for  were  not  their  ancestors  leprous 
Egyptians  who  had  migrated  to  Palestine? 
They  were  atheists  because  they  refused  to  wor- 
ship the  gods  of  the  Greeks;  they  were  bad  citi- 
zens because  they  would  not  worship  the  Roman 
Emperor  whose  protection  they  enjoyed.  More 
serious,  because  it  was  not  wholly  ungrounded, 
was  the  complaint  of  the  Greeks  that  in  repudi- 


220          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

ating  the  Alexandrian  belief  that  all  men  are 
brethren  and  equal  before  God,  the  Jews  had 
branded  themselves  as  inhumane  and  haters  of 
their  fellow-men.  No  dreamy  absorption  in  the 
law,  written  or  oral,  was  possible  in  an  atmos- 
phere charged  with  such  pointed  missiles,  and 
the  Alexandrian  Jews  must  be  constantly  on  the 
alert  to  meet  and  parry  the  thrusts  of  the  Greeks 
and  their  philosophy.  The  questions  suggested 
by  the  subtle  and  penetrating  Greek  mind  could 
not  be  answered  by  puerile  sophistries,  and  the 
Jews  who  endeavored  to  respond  to  them  were 
both  startled  and  chagrined  to  find  fresh  truth 
and  beauty  in  the  philosophy  of  Pythagoras, 
Socrates,  Plato,  and  the  Stoics.  The  Alexan- 
drian Jew  must  meet  "argument  with  argument, 
and  that  not  only  for  those  who  were  without, 
but  in  order  himself  to  be  quite  sure  of  what  he 
believed.  He  must  be  able  to  hold  the  truth  not 
only  in  controversy  with  others  where  pride 
might  bid  him  stand  fast,  but  in  that  much  more 
serious  contest  within,  where  a  man  meets  the  old 
adversary  in  the  secret  arena  of  his  own  mind  and 
has  to  sustain  that  terrible  hand-to-hand  fight 
in  which  he  is  uncheered  by  outward  help.  But 
why  should  he  shrink  from  the  conflict  when  he 
was  sure  that  his  was  the  divine  truth  and  that 
therefore  victory  must  be  on  his  side?"  To  one 
truth  at  least  he  felt  he  might  hold  fast.  Moses 


HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  221 

the  lawgiver  was  the  greatest  of  all  men  and  the 
law  given  to  him  by  God  for  his  chosen  people 
contained  the  basis  of  all  goodness  and  truth. 
If  the  nobler  elements  of  Greek  philosophy  were 
not  apparent  on  the  surface  of  the  Hebrew  Bible, 
by  penetrating  beneath  the  outer  crust,  he  might 
surely  find  the  hidden  gold  and  in  consequence 
a  host  of  literary  productions  for  the  purpose 
of  upholding  Judaism  against  the  attacks  of 
the  heathen  and  proving  that  the  Hebrew  Bible 
contained  all  that  was  best  in  Greek  philos- 
ophy sprang  into  existence. 

The  letter  of  the  fictitious  Aristeas,  which  pro- 
claims the  anxiety  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  to 
procure  a  translation  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures, 
was  evidently  written  to  uphold  the  dignity  of 
Judaism  in  the  eyes  of  the  heathen;  and  the  Sep- 
tuagint  was  the  first  plank  in  the  bridge  which* 
was  to  cross  the  chasm  between  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles. Among  other  productions  written  with 
the  same  object  in  mind  were  the  Fourth  book 
of  Maccabees,  numerous  pseudonymic  books,  and 
the  Apocryphal  Wisdom  of  Solomon  in  which,  as 
has  already  been  said,  we  find  a  first  faint  premo- 
nition of  the  warmth  and  humanity  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith. 

The  first  Jewish  author,  however,  who  wrote 
with  the  openly  avowed  intention  of  extracting 
from  the  Jewish  Bible  all  the  nobler  elements  of 


222          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

Greek  philosophy  was  Aristobulus,  an  Alexan- 
drian Jew,  who  probably  lived  in  the  second 
century  before  Christ.  Primarily  the  disciple  of 
Aristotle,  he  was  also  a  faithful  Jew  and  boldly 
asserts  in  his  commentary  on  the  Pentateuch,  a 
fragment  of  which  only  has  been  preserved  to 
us,  that  Pythagoras,  Socrates,  and  Plato  derived 
their  philosophies  from  Moses,  and  that  the 
Greek  poets  Homer  and  Hesiod  also  borrowed 
much  from  him.  The  method  which  he  used  to 
prove  the  startling  conclusions  at  which  he  ar- 
rived was  that  of  allegorical  interpretation, 
already  employed  by  Plato  and  the  Stoics  to  find 
a  deeper  meaning  in  the  writings  of  Homer.  By 
applying  it  to  mythical  stories  or  popular  beliefs 
and  by  tracing  the  supposed  symbolical  meaning 
of  names,  numbers,  etc,  it  became  easy  to  prove 
almost  anything,  or  to  extract  from  philosophical 
truths,  ethical  principles  and  even  the  later  results 
of  natural  science.  "Such  a  process  was  peculiarly 
pleasing  to  the  imagination  and  the  results  alike 
astounding  and  satisfactory,  since  as  they  could 
not  be  proved,  neither  could  they  be  disproved. 
The  allegorical  method  was  the  welcome  key 
by  which  the  Hellenists  might  unlock  the  hid- 
den treasury  of  Scripture."  By  it  Aristobulus 
brought  the  whole  system  of  Aristotle  out  of  the 
Bible.  "When  we  read  that  God  stood,  it  meant 
the  stable  order  of  the  world;  that  He  created 


HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  223 

the  world  in  six  days,  the  orderly  succession  of 
time;  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath,  the  preservation 
of  what  was  created."  So  determined  was 
Aristobulus  in  his  purpose,  he  was  not  to  be 
thwarted  by  a  dearth  of  the  historical  evidence 
which  the  public  demanded.  Literary  honor  in 
the  second  century  before  Christ  was  not  what 
it  is  today,  and  etiquette  lauded  the  modesty  of 
one  who  attributed  his  own  work  to  another.  If 
therefore  proof  that  Greek  poetry  and  philos- 
ophy had  been  derived  from  the  teachings  of 
Moses  did  not  exist,  Aristobulus  felt  no  hesi- 
tation in  creating  it.  Anonymous  poems  had 
often  been  attributed  to  Orpheus,  the  mythical 
singer  of  Thrace  whose  sweet  music  is  said  to 
have  charmed  men  and  wild  beasts.  Aristobulus 
therefore  audaciously  asserted  that  Orpheus  had 
been  taught  by  the  Jewish  lawgiver  whom  he  had 
met  in  Egypt;  and-  certain  quotations  decidedly 
Jewish  in  character  were  added  to  the  list  of  the 
Thracian  charmer's  supposed  writings.  Other 
quotations  of  Jewish  origin  inserted  in  Aris- 
tobulus' commentary  on  the  Pentateuch  were 
assigned  to  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  Linus. 

Fired  by  the  example  of  Aristobulus,  other 
Hellenists  were  not  slow  to  follow  in  his  foot- 
steps. Jewish  wisdom  emanating  from  the  Si- 
byls who  were  consulted  by  Greece  and  Rome  in 
times  of  public  danger  and  misfortune,  would  be 


224.          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

most  convincing  to  the  cultured  heathen.  This 
opportunity  was  eagerly  embraced  and  a  col- 
lection of  Sybylline  oracles  of  Jewish  origin  was 
the  result.  Other  books  written  to  edify  and 
perhaps  convert  the  heathen,  as  the  Psalter  of 
Solomon,  the  book  of  Enoch,  and  the  book  of 
Jubilees,  were  also  ascribed  to  false  authors. 

But  the  man  who  completed  and  systematized 
the  work  begun  by  Aristobulus  was  Philo,  a 
Jewish  philosopher,  born  in  Alexandria  between 
10  and  20  B.  c.  With  the  exception  of  Josephus, 
Philo  was  the  most  prominent  of  all  the  Hellen- 
ists. His  father  was  one  of  the  wealthiest  and 
most  influential  of  Alexandria's  merchant  princes 
and  his  brother  the  alabarch  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munity of  that  city.  He  was  himself,  in  his  old 
age,  one  of  the  ambassadors  sent  to  Caligula  to 
beg  for  the  removal  of  the  images  which  had 
caused  great  disturbance  in  Judea.  Philo  had 
acquired  a  profound  knowledge  of  Greek  philos- 
ophy. He  was  at  the  same  time  an  enthusiastic 
believer  in  the  faith  of  his  race,  and,  like  Aris- 
tobulus, was  determined  to  find  one  in  the  other. 
Pythagoras,  Plato,  and  the  Stoics  were  to  him 
great  and  revered  teachers,  not  pagan  Greeks; 
but  greater  and  more  revered  than  any  other  was 
Moses  whose  message  was  divinely  inspired, 
whose  authority  he  acknowledged  as  supreme. 

By  interweaving  the  many  and  diverse  strands 


HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  225 

of  Greek  philosophy  and  Jewish  religion,  Philo 
produced  a  philosophy  whose  design  was  original 
with  himself.  Of  the  numerous  books  written 
by  him,  the  commentary  on  Genesis  is  the  one 
best  calculated  to  illustrate  the  principles  of  his 
theory  of  life.  Certain  eternal  verities  known 
to  all  men  and  all  ages,  were  found  in  both  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  and  books  of  Greek  wisdom. 
Encouraged  by  this  resemblance,  Philo  believed 
that  a  profound  study  of  the  Scriptures  would 
prove  that  Greek  philosophers  had  learned  their 
wisdom  from  Moses,  the  greatest  and  wisest  of 
all  men,  and  like  his  predecessors,  used  the 
method  of  allegorical  interpretation  to  establish 
the  supremacy  of  the  Jewish  law-giver.  He  was 
convinced  that  beneath  the  outer  husk  of  literal 
and  historical  truth  lay  the  more  valuable  kernels, 
truths  concerning  the  supreme  problems  of 
human  existence.  In  the  slaying  of  the  Egyp- 
tian by  Moses,  he  beheld  the  subjugation  of 
passion;  in  Simeon,  the  soul  aiming  for  higher 
things.  The  Palestinian  Jews  had  already  used 
this  method  of  interpretation  in  the  Haggadah 
but  in  Philo's  hands  the  method  became  much 
more  penetrating  and  far-reaching.  He  not  only 
touched  everything,  beasts,  birds,  plants,  stones, 
conditions  and  substances,  even  sex,  with  the 
magic  wand  of  his  symbolism,  but  he  took  un- 
warranted liberties  with  the  text.  The  spelling 


226          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

of  words  was  altered,  and  special  significance 
was  attached  to  the  choice  and  use  of  words,  the 
position  of  paragraphs  and  even  the  use  of  an 
unexpected  singular  or  plural.  Every  adverb, 
participle,  and  preposition  had  its  special  hidden 
meaning. 

The  God  discovered  in  the  Jewish  Bible  by  him 
was,  strangely  enough,  not  the  God  of  Israel's 
priests,  but  the  God  of  the  Greek  philosophers. 
Like  Plato  and  his  followers,  he  believed  God 
was  not  only  free  from  human  faults,  but  far 
above  human  virtues  and  incomprehensible  to 
man's  limited  apprehensions.  It  was  thus  pos- 
sible to  say  not  what  He  was,  but  only  what  He 
was  not,  a  Being  whom  man  could  not  know,  a 
vague  and  unsatisfactory  Something  who  existed 
neither  in  time  nor  space,  who  was  devoid  of  all 
human  qualities.  This  absence  of  attributes  was 
contradicted  by  the  Stoic  and  Jewish  idea  that 
God  was  indwelling  and  omnipresent,  the  light 
and  well-spring  of  the  soul.  It  was  believed 
that  all  perfection  was  derived  from  God,  but 
only  the  soul  could  be  directly  created  by  Him, 
for  with  matter  He  could  have  nothing  to  do. 
Since  contact  with  matter  might  mar  the  per- 
fection of  God  and  stain  His  beauty,  the  works 
of  creation  and  providence  must  be  accomplished 
through  the  agency  of  intermediary  beings. 
This  idea  was  not  new  to  either  Jews  or  Greeks, 


HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  227 

for  the  former  were  accustomed  to  think  of 
angels,  and  the  latter  of  daemons  as  the  mes- 
sengers of  God.  Intangible  and  impersonal 
forces  working  in  the  world  had  been  repre- 
sented by  Plato's  doctrine  of  ideas  and  the  Stoic 
doctrine  of  active  causes.  All  four  doctrines 
were  combined  in  Philo's  theory  of  intermediary 
beings  with  confusing  inconsistency.  The  atmos- 
phere, according  to  Philo,  was  filled  with  souls. 
Those  attracted  by  sensuous  delights,  rested 
nearest  the  earth  and  were  caught  and  impris- 
oned in  bodies.  Those  who  dwelt  higher  in  the 
atmosphere  were  the  medium  through  which  God 
revealed  himself  to  men.  They  issued  from 
God  as  ubeams  from  the  light,  as  the  waters  from 
the  spring,  as  the  breath  from  a  person."  They 
were  both  messenger  and  message,  both  personal 
and  impersonal.  Great  among  these  forces  were 
might  and  goodness,  but  most  universal  and  su- 
preme of  all  was  the  power  appropriately  named 
by  Philo  the  Aoyos  or  word;  for  as  man  by 
words  expresses  to  others  the  thoughts  and 
purposes  of  his  inner  self,  so  the  Logos  was  God's 
expression  of  himself  to  man.  It  was  the  wire 
by  means  of  which  messages  might  be  sent  from 
God  to  man  and  from  man  to  God;  it  was  also 
the  vice-regent  and  ambassador  of  God;  the  in- 
strument by  which  He  created  the  world;  and  the 
high  priest  of  the  human  race;  a  force  similar  in 


228          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

some  respects  to  the  Jewish  Wisdom  of  God  and 
the  Greek  Spirit  and  Word  of  God. 

The  body  was  to  Philo  the  prison  and  burden 
of  the  soul,  the  grave  and  coffin  from  whose  in- 
nate evil  man  could  not  escape  even  for  a  single 
day.  Morality  consequently  consisted  in  root- 
ing out  all  sensuous  desires  and  living  a  clean, 
honest  and  simple  life.  Thus  far  Philo  had  fol- 
lowed the  signal  lights  of  the  Stoics,  but  in 
carrying  out  their  theory,  he  trod  a  path  of  his 
own  which  led  toward  Christianity. 

To  become  virtuous  and  happy,  he  believed 
that  man  must  receive  help  from  God.  The  soul 
which  had  been  bound  to  a  body  by  its  distance 
from  God  might  by  study  and  discipline  rise  till  it 
could  behold  His  glory  and  goodness  and  forget- 
ting self,  like  a  clear  pool,  reflect  the  beauty  and 
brightness  of  vision.  "His  own  consciousness 
sinks  and  disappears  in  the  Divine  light  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwells  in  him  and  stirs  him  like  the 
strings  of  a  musical  instrument."  To  thus  behold 
God  would  bring  to  human  beings  the  greatest  of 
all  earthly  happiness.  One  step  further  only 
would  lead  to  perfection,  the  death  of  the  body 
and  the  freedom  of  the  soul. 

This  rapid  passage  over  a  few  points  of  Philo's 
philosophy  will  be  sufficient  to  convince  the  Bible 
student  that  although  the  doctrine  of  the  Hel- 
lenist sage  had  little  lasting  influence  upon  either 


HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM  229 

Judaism  or  Hellenism,  it  paved  the  way  for  the 
coming  of  Christianity.  When  John,  the  beloved 
disciple  of  Christ,  was  endeavoring  to  impart  to 
the  Ephesians,  among  whom  he  dwelt,  the  mes- 
sage of  his  Lord,  he  could  find  no  more  suitable 
mold  for  the  new  doctrine  than  that  already 
familiar  to  both  Jew  and  Greek,  the  divine  Logos 
as  the  light,  life  and  well-spring  of  a  restless  and 
dissatisfied  world.  But  in  his  hands,  the  vague 
and  shadowy  Logos  of  Philo  became  a  living  and 
loving  Being  "full  of  grace  and  truth/'  and  God  a 
tender  Father  rather  than  a  distant  and  abstract 
force.* 

*  See  Edersheim's  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  JEWS  AND  THE  ROMANS 

When  the  wishes  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes 
clashed  with  those  of  Rome  and  the  emissaries 
from  the  rival  factions  met  in  council  on  the  Egyp- 
tian sea-shore,  the  Roman  envoy  enclosed  the 
space  upon  which  Antiochus  stood  with  a  circle 
drawn  in  the  sand  beyond  the  circumference  of 
which  the  mad  monarch  might  not  pass  until  he 
had  first  obeyed  the  ultimatum  of  Rome  "erravOa 
fiovXevov" — decide  now. 

The  decision  with  which  Rome  crushed  the 
ambitious  scheme  of  the  Syrian  king  was  charac- 
teristic of  her  treatment  of  her  subordinates  and 
Judea  with  other  Roman  provinces  early  learned 
the  bitter  lesson  that  punishment,  sure  and  terri- 
ble, swiftly  followed  any  transgression  of  the 
circumscribed  limitations  imposed  by  Rome. 
The  great  temple  at  Jerusalem  was  built,  osten- 
sibly indeed,  with  all  consideration  for  Jewish 
prejudices  and  Pharisaic  whims,  but  at  its  comple- 
tion, the  golden  eagle  of  Rome,  doubly  hateful  as 
a  graven  image  whose  presence  was  forbidden  by 
Mosaic  law  and  as  a  symbol  of  Roman  domi- 

230 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  231 

nance,  was  placed  above  its  most  frequented 
entrance.  Every  fiber  of  Jewish  being  protested 
against  this  insult  to  Jehovah,  Ruler  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  when  at  last  Herod  was  laid  low  by 
•  fatal  illness,  forty  young  Pharisees,  pupils  of  the 
respected  Rabbis,  Judas  and  Mattathias,  climbed 
to  the  top  of  Nicanor's  gate  and  hacked  the 
golden  eagle  to  pieces  with  their  axes.  Such  a 
flagrant  act  of  insubordination  could  not  be  over- 
looked, though  Herod  lay  upon  his  death-bed. 
The  culprits  with  their  teafchers,  were  dragged 
by  Roman  soldiers  to  Jericho, -sentenced  by  the  old 
king,  and  burned  alive.  This  incident  only  fore- 
shadowed that  which  was  to  come.  The  history 
of  Judea  from  the  death  of  Herod  the  Great 
until  70  A.  D.  is  an*  oft-repeated  story  of  violent 
•collision  between  the  inflexible  Roman  and 
irrepressible  Jew.  "All-powerful  Rome  could 
destroy  Israel,  but  not  pervert  it.  Israel  die! 
not  give  way  to  Rome  to  the  extent  of  even  a 
single  thought."  And,  although  the  period 
when  Palestine  was  ruled  first  by  the  sons  of 
Herod  and  later  by  Roman  procurators  does  not 
properly  belong  to  the  interim  between  the  Testa- 
ments, a  brief  survey  of  these  troubled  years  is 
given  here  as  necessary  to  any  comprehension  of 
the  relations  existing  between  the  two  nations. 

The    frequent    executions   with   which    Herod 
thinned  the  ranks  of  his  numerous  family  com- 


232          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

pelled  him  to  make  three  wills,  the  las,t  of  which 
received  the  confirmation  and  approval  of  Augus- 
tus and  governed  the  destiny  of  Palestine  during 
the  first  years  of  the  Christian  era.  By  its  terms, 
Herod's  kingdom  was  divided  among  three  of 
his  surviving  sons.  The  northern  provinces  were 
bequeathed  to  Philip  who  in  some  marvelous 
way  had  escaped  the  taint  of  his  inheritance  and 
environment  and  for  thirty-seven  years  governed 
his  kingdom  wisely  and  well.  Galilee  and  Perea 
became  the  domain  of  Antipas  well-known  to 
Bible  history  as  the  sovereign  of  Jesus  and  the 
executor  of  John  the  Baptist.  For  thirty-five 
years  he  maintained  the  balance  between  his  Jew- 
ish subjects  and  their  Roman  sovereigns  by  a 
craftily  feigned  allegiance  to  the  interests  of 
both.  The  ambitious  scheme  of  his  unlawful 
wife  Herodias  by  whom  he  was  completely  dom- 
inated, finally  led  to  his  downfall.  In  39  A.  D., 
he  was  accused  of  conspiring  against  the  Roman 
government  and  was  banished  to  Lyons  in  Gaul 
where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life.  Arche- 
laus  to  whom  the  provinces  of  Judea,  Idumea, 
and  Samaria,  had  been  assigned,  was  the  most 
violent  of  the  three  brothers,  divorcing  and 
marrying  wives  and  removing  and  appointing 
high  priests  at  will.  After  nine  years  of  misrule, 
a  delegation  of  Jews  and  Samaritans  appeared 
before  Augustus  bringing  accusations  of  such  a 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  233 

serious  nature  against  their  ruler  that  he  was 
deposed  and  condemned  to  lite  banishment  in 
Gaul. 

Ten  years  before  the  banishment  of  Archelaus, 
an  embassy  of  Jews  had  begged  Augustus  to  free 
their  country  from  the  curse  of  Herodian  rulers 
and  to  allow  them  to  live  according  to  their  own 
laws  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  a  Roman 
governor.  That  request  was  now  granted. 
Judea  and  subsequently  all  Palestine  was  annexed 
to  the  Roman  province  of  Syria;  its  government 
was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  Roman  procurator 
and  it  entered  the  third  class  of  Roman  depend- 
encies, those  which  were  particularly  difficult  to 
govern  either  on  account  of  their  savage  state 
or  the  tenacity  with  which  they  clung  to  their 
native  customs. 

The  high  hopes  with  which  the  Jews  entered 
upon  this  change  of  government  were  doomed  to 
bitter  down-fall  and  disappointment;  for  while 
the  Herods  during  their  long  residence  in  Judea 
had  obtained  an  insight  into  Jewish  character 
and  had  become  convinced  of  the  futility  of 
interfering  with  that  which  lay  nearest  their 
hearts,  their  religious  rites,  the  Jews  were  now 
exposed  to  the  merciless  rapacity  of  Roman 
officials  to  whom  their  religion  was,  in  the  words 
of  Cicero,  a  "barbarous  superstition"  and  its 
adherents  "a  race  distinguished  for  its  contempt 


234          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

of  the  gods."  The  politics  and  religion  of  the 
Romans  were  inextricably  interwoven  and 
unstinted  devotion  to  an  Unseen  Being  who 
bestowed  no  material  or  political  reward  upon 
his  worshippers  seemed  to  them  both  grotesque 
and  impractical.  The  Sabbath  rest  was  to  them 
only  an  excuse  for  indolence  and  the  abstinence 
from  swine's  flesh  the  result  of  an  ancestral  ven- 
eration for  the  pig.  They  resented  the  persist- 
ent refusal  of  the  Jew  to  join  in  the  emperor 
worship  then  prevalent,  and  the  pride  with  which 
Israelites  held  themselves  aloof  from  foreigners 
was  repaid  by  the  Roman  with  such  scorn  and 
contempt  that  the  pathetic  sadness  with  which 
Philo  asks  for  his  country-men  no  better  fate  than 
to  be  treated  as  other  men  can  occasion  no 
wonder. 

The  procurator  lived  in  Caesarea,  occupying 
Herod's  palace  at  Jerusalem  only  upon  Jewish 
feast  days  when  the  city  swarmed  with  pilgrims 
and  there  was  most  danger  of  riot  and  disturb- 
ance. He  administered  the  finances  of  the  prov- 
ince and  was  commander-in-chief  of  its  military 
forces,  answerable  only  in  extreme  cases  to  the 
legate  of  Syria  and  the  supreme  authorities  at 
Rome.  Civil  and  criminal  cases  were  as  a  rule 
left  to  native  and  local  courts,  but  the  sentence 
of  any  court  including  the  Sanhedrin,  might  be 
affirmed  or  annulled  by  his  decree.  Only  in  cases 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  235 

of  life  and  death  was  it  possible  for  a  Roman 
citizen  to  escape  his  authority  by  appealing  to 
Caesar.  The  restrictions  which  the  Jews  re- 
sented most  bitterly  were  those  imposed  upon  the 
temple  and  its  belongings,  the  Roman  guard 
stationed  in  its  outer  court,  the  contents  of  its 
treasury  administered  by  the  Roman  procurator, 
and  most  insufferable  of  all,  the  beautiful  robe  of 
the  high  priest  entrusted  to  the  Roman  comman- 
dant of  the  fortress  Antonia  whence  its  owners 
were  permitted  to  take  it  only  upon  the  four 
feast  days  of  the  Jewish  year. 

It  is  true  that  Judaism  received  the  favor  and 
protection  of  many  of  the  Roman  emperors. 
The  Jews  were  not  obliged  to  take  part  in  the 
emperor  worship  which  was  compulsory  in  other 
provinces,  and  the  military  standards-  bearing  the 
likeness  of  the  emperor  were  excluded  from 
Judea  because  they  were  offensive  to  its  citizens. 
On  account  of  their  inconvenient  habit  of  Sabbath 
observance,  they  were  granted  freedom  from  mil- 
itary service,  and  the  law  which  forbade  for- 
eigners to  enter  the  inner  courts  of  the  temple  up- 
on pain  of  death  was  strictly  enforced  even  in  the 
case  of  Roman  citizens.  But  all  this  availed 
little  when  for  the  administration  of  these  en- 
actments, the  Jews  must  depend  upon  Roman 
officials  who  almost  invariably  considered  Jewish 
life  and  property  their  rightful  prey,  and  By 


236          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

making  Jewish  religion  the  object  of  ridicule  and 
coarse  jests,  brought  their  subjects  to  such  a  pitch 
of  nervous  excitement  that  the  latter  resented  the 
most  reasonable  act  of  the  Roman  authorities  as 
an  infringement  of  the  divine  rights  of  God's 
chosen  people  whom  all  the  other  nations  of  the 
world  should  serve. 

Excessive  and  burdensome  taxes  extorted  from 
the  Jews  had  been  a  feature  of  the  reign  of  the 
Herods.  The  suspicions  of  the  people  were 
therefore  aroused  when  immediately  after  the 
appointment  of  the  first  procurator,  preparations 
were  made  for  readjusting  the  system  of  taxes 
according  to  the  Roman  method;  and  the  high 
priest  had  all  that  he  could  do  to  keep  the  under- 
current of  hatred  and  discontent  from  breaking 
into  open  rebellion.  As  a  result  of  this  sup- 
pressed outbreak,  the  more  fanatical  of  the  Phar- 
isees formed  themselves  into  a  party  called 
Zealots  whose  only  purpose  was  never  to  submit 
to  Rome  and  to  oppose  her  authority  in  every 
way.  They  kept  the  cauldron  of  Jewish  hatred 
hot,  and  the  ebullitions  of  Jewish  wrath  by  whicfi 
Judea  was  frequently  scarred  were  often  occa- 
sioned by  the  heat  of  their  rebellious  ill-will. 

A  storm  of  protest  which  could  not  be  quelled 
arose  when  in  26  A.  D.  the  fifth  procurator 
Pontius  Pilate,  set  up  in  Jerusalem  the  soldier's 
standards  hitherto  excluded  from  Judea.  As 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  237 

soon  as  the  news  had  been  published  throughout 
Jerusalem  and  the  surrounding  country,  a  motley 
throng  consisting  of  five  thousand  men,  women, 
and  children  gathered  and  set  out  for  Caesarea. 
For  five  days  the  palace  of  the  procurator  was 
surrounded  by  a  howling  and  shrieking  mob  who 
demanded  the  removal  of  the  offensive  standards. 
Pilate  tried  in  vain  to  silence  the  throng  by  de- 
claring that  he  could  not  so  dishonor  the  emperor 
as  to  grant  their  request.  At  the  end  of  the 
sixth  day,  he  repeated  his  refusal  in  the  stadium 
whither  he  had  invited  the  angry  crowd  to  receive 
his  decision.  Then  the  outcries  broke  forth 
afresh  and  the  soldiers  by  whom  the  theater  was 
surrounded  advanced  upon  the  mob  with  drawn 
swords;  but  the  Jews  baring  their  necks  and 
breasts,  signified  that  they  would  rather  die  than 
witness  such  sacrilege  and  Pilate,  moved  by  their 
desperation,  quietly  ordered  the  removal  of  the 
ensigns.  In  the  latter  part  of  his  term  of  office, 
Pilate  again  ventured  to  place  shields  bearing 
the  name  of  the  emperor  but  no  image,  in  the 
temple  of  Herod  at  Jerusalem.  This  also  the 
Jews  refused  to  endure  and  a  delegation  of  prom- 
inent men  among  whom  were  the  four  sons  of 
Herod  brought  their  protestations  to  the  pro- 
curator. As  he  remained  inflexible,  a  petition 
was  sent  to  the  Roman  emperor  Tiberius  who 
perceiving  that  Pilate  cared  less  to  honor  him 


238         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

than  to  torment  the  Jews,  ordered  the  tablets 
removed  to  the  temple  of  Augustus  in  Caesarea. 
"Thus  were  the  honor  of  the  emperor  and  the 
ancient  customs  of  the  city  both  preserved." 

Fresh  trouble  arose  when  Tiberius  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  half-demented  tyrant  Caligula  who 
actually  believed  in  his  own  divinity  and  regarded 
the  Jews'  refusal  to  join  in  emperor  worship  as 
a  personal  affront.  Heathen  altars  and  images 
in  Jamnia  were  destroyed  by  the  Jews,  and  to 
avenge  the  insult,  Caligula  ordered  the  prepa- 
ration of  a  life-sized  statue  of  himself  which  he 
proposed  to  set  up  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  at 
Jerusalem.  The  preparation  of  the  statue  was 
delayed  by  the  humanity  of  the  Syrian  legate 
Petronius  and  before  the  order  was  carried  out, 
a  powerful  advocate  appeared  to  plead  the  cause 
of  the  Jews.  Agrippa,  a  son  of  Aristobulus  and 
grandson  of  Herod  and  Mariamne,  while  sowing 
a  crop  of  youthful  wild  oats  in  Rome,  had  become 
the  friend  and  boon  companion  of  Caligula. 
To  this  old  comrade  the  emperor  could  refuse 
nothing,  and  because  he  begged  him  not  to  carry 
out  his  threat,  the  temple  remained  undisturbed. 
Through  the  influence  of  Caligula  and  his  suc- 
cessor Claudius,  all  Palestine  became  in  41  A.  D. 
the  united  realm  of  Agrippa  and  for  three  short, 
but  happy  years,  the  precepts  of  the  Pharisees 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  239 

were  treated  with  reverence  and  the  golden  age 
of  Alexandra  returned  to  Judea. 

The  reign  of  Agrippa  had  proved  that  a  little 
tact  and  sympathy  might  work  wonders  in  Pal- 
estine, but  the  seven  Roman  procurators  who  suc- 
ceeded him  made  no  effort  to  follow  his  example, 
but  rather  did  everything  in  their  power  to  widen 
the  already  threatening  breach  beyond  repair. 
From  the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  Felix  sprang 
the  Sicarii,  a  set  of  fanatics  who  received  their 
name  from  the  dagger  (sica)  which  they  con- 
cealed beneath  their  cloaks.  They  mingled  with 
the  people  in  public  assemblies  and  on  the  streets, 
and  stabbed  Romans  and  Roman  sympathizers, 
deceiving  their  opponents  by  the  deep  grief  they 
feigned  when  their  victims  fell.  The  combined 
efforts  of  political  fanatics  and  the  religious  fan- 
atics who  also  infested  the  country,  produced 
wild  agitation  and  unrest.  "They  persuaded  the 
Jews  to  revolt  and  parting  themselves  into  dif- 
ferent bodies,  lay  in  wait  up  and  down  the  country 
and  plundered  the  houses  of  great  men  and  slew 
the  men  themselves  and  set  the  villages  on  fire; 
and  this  till  all  Judea  was  filled  with  their  mad- 
ness. "  The  last  two  procurators  were  at  the 
same  time  the  worst.  The  avarice  of  the  first, 
Albinus,  was  proverbial.  He  considered  money- 
grabbing  the  chief  duty  and  privilege  of  his  office. 


240         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

Private  property  and  public  treasure  were  the 
prey  of  his  incontrollable  greed;  and  for  a  bribe, 
any  criminal,  however  vicious,  might  obtain  re- 
lease from  prison.  "Hence  the  prisons  were 
empty  and  the  whole  country  overrun  by  rob- 
bers.'' The  success  with  which  Albinus  com- 
mitted infamies  encouraged  Florus,  his  successor 
to  practise  all  kinds  of  crime  openly  and  upon  a 
larger  scale.  Robbing  private  individuals  was 
quite  too  small  a  matter  to  engage  his  attention. 
Whole  communities  were  robbed  and  whole  cities 
plundered.  Robbers  who  would  share  their 
booty  with  him  were  allowed  to  carry  on  their  ne- 
farious business  without  interference.  Multi- 
tudes left  their  homes  and  fled  into  foreign  prov- 
inces. When  Cestius  Gallus,  the  Syrian  legate, 
visited  Jerusalem  during  the  week  of  the  pass- 
over,  he  was  surrounded  by  a  great  throng  of 
Jewish  pilgrims  who  besought  him  with  tears  in 
their  eyes  to  free  them  from  the  intolerable 
cruelty  of  their  governor;  and  Florus  who  was 
present,  resolved  then  and  there  to  goad  his  un- 
happy subjects  until  they  committed  the  irre- 
parable folly  of  declaring  war  against  Rome. 
In  the  confusion  of  a  revolt,  his  own  orime  would 
be  buried  and  its  consequences  escaped.  He 
acted  upon  his  conviction  and  things  went  rap- 
idly from  bad  to  worse.  In  Caesarea,  public 
worship  was  openly  disturbed;  and  in  Jerusalem 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  241 

indignation  reached  the  boiling  point  when  Florus 
pretending  that  the  emperor  needed  money,  stole 
seventeen  talents  (#15,000.)  from  the  treasury. 
The  people  flocked  to  the  courts  of  the  temple 
where  they  filled  the  air  with  loud  denun- 
ciations of  the  detested  procurator;  and 
two  wags  passed  a  basket  among  the  crowd 
to  collect  alms  for  the  destitute  governor 
now,  as  always,  an  object  of  Jewish  charity. 
Florus  was  very  angry  when  he  heard  of 
the  jest  and  the  penality  he  exacted  was 
a  heavy  one.  With  a  company  of  Roman 
soldiers,  he  marched  upon  Jerusalem;  and  in  the 
wholesale  plunder  and  slaughter  which  took  place 
at  his  command,  3600  men,  women,  and  children, 
including  a  large  number  of  Roman  knights  of 
Jewish  descent,  were  scourged  and  then  crucified. 
Even  now  the  leaders  of  the  excited  people 
succeeded  in  restoring  order  and  when  Florus 
commanded  the  rebels  to  prove  their  penitence 
and  good  intentions  by  meeting  and  saluting  re- 
spectfully two  cohorts  of  Roman  soldiers  then 
on  their  way  from  Caesarea  to  Jerusalem,  they 
were  convinced  by  the  priests  that  it  would  be 
folly  to  refuse  this  medicine,  bitter  though  it 
was.  But  when  the  respectful  salutation  of  the 
Jews  was  received  with  stony  disregard,  audible 
protests  and  complaints  against  Florus  rose  from 
the  Jewish  ranks.  This  was  exactly  what  Florus 


242         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

had  anticipated  and  the  Romans,  who  had  re- 
ceived previous  instructions,  began  to  cut 
the  malcontents  down.  At  the  same  time  the 
Jews  were  attacked  on  the  other  side  by  Florus 
and  a  company  of  soldiers  he  had  brought  from 
Jerusalem.  All  Jerusalem  hastened  to  join  in 
the  fray,  and  against  the  united  violence  of  the 
Jewish  multitude,  the  Romans  were  unable  to 
stand.  During  the  night  the  bridges  and  ap- 
proaches to  the  temple  were  destroyed  by  the 
rebels,  and  Florus  who  had  hoped  to  plunder  the 
temple  withdrew,  leaving  Jerusalem  in  charge  of 
the  Jewish  leaders  and  a  cohort  of  Roman 
soldiers. 

Conflicting  reports  of  the  outbreak  were  sent 
to  Cestius  Callus,  and  a  Roman  tribune  Neapoli- 
tanus  was  despatched  by  him  to  Jerusalem  to  get 
at  the  root  of  the  matter.  Neapolitanus  was  so 
impressed  by  the  cordial  welcome  and  kind 
treatment  he  received  that  he  praised  the  Jews 
for  their  good  conduct  and  assured  them  that  all 
might  be  well  if  they  would  only  keep  the  peace. 
After  his  departure,  Agrippa  II  who  had  accom- 
panied him,  warned  the  people  in  a  long  and  elo- 
quent speech  against  the  danger  of  rebellion.  By 
his  advice,  they  restored  the  approaches  to  the 
temple  and  began  to  collect  the  unpaid  tribute 
money;  but  when  he  asked  them  to  respect  and 
obey  Florus  until  Caesar  could  appoint  some 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  243 

one  to  take  his  place,  his  proposal  was  received 
with  jeers  and  a  shower  of  stones.  The  daily 
sacrifice  for  the  Roman  emperor  was  discon- 
tinued and  war  was  declared. 

The  sun  has  never  looked  down  upon  a  struggle 
more  dreadful  than  that  which  from  67-70  A.  D. 
made  the  holy  land  a  land  of  blood  and  fire. 
Freed  from  the  shackles  of  Roman  power, 
bigoted  fanaticism  and  fiery  hatred,  like  mad 
men  loosed  from  a  prison-house,  terrorized  the 
country  with  their  insane  fury  and  ruled  over  the 
city  so  many  times  heroically  defended  in  the  fear 
and  love  of  God.  Prudence  and  self-control 
were  scattered  to  the  winds  and  there  was  a 
wild  outburst  of  unreasoning  passion.  Jerusalem 
became  a  city  divided  against  herself.  Son 
rose  up  against  father  and  father  against  son. 

Faction  after  faction,  locked  in  civil  strife, 
stained  the  honor  and  sapped  the  strength  of  the 
holy  city;  and  the  most  fearful  outrages  and 
frightful  atrocities  were  committed  by  Jews 
against  Jews  before  the  Romans  approached  its 
walls. 

The  more  intelligent  Jews,  including  the 
Herods,  Agrippa,  and  the  leading  priests  and 
Pharisees,  realized  that  war  with  Rome  could 
end  in  only  one  way.  Since  counsel  was  futile, 
they  resolved  to  restrain  the  people  by  force 
from  the  ruin  they  would  inevitably  bring  upon 


244          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

themselves  and  a  conflict  between  those  who 
wished  for  peace  and  those  who  wished  for 
war  ensued.  The  war  party  led  by  Eleazar,  the 
son  of  Ananias  the  high  priest,  took  possession 
of  the  temple  fortress;  the  peace  party  led  by 
Ananias  held  the  citadel,  and  blood  was  shed 
daily  upon  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  by  the  op- 
posed forces  of  father  and  son.  When,  finally, 
a  grandson  of  Judas,  the  well-known  Galilean 
rebel,  came  with  a  large  force  of  Sicarii  to  the 
aid  of  Eleazar,  the  peace  party  was  obliged  to 
surrender.  In  hideous  delight  at  their  victory, 
the  rebels  set  fire  to  the  beautiful  palaces  of 
Berenice,  Agrippa  and  Ananias',  and  the  aged 
high  priest  with  his  brother  was  dragged 
from  a  place  of  concealment  and  killed.  The 
agitation  was  increased  by  a  quarrel  between  the 
Sicarii  and  the  men  of  Jerusalem;  and,  in  a 
massacre  led  by  Eleazar,  his  allies  were  cut  down 
without  mercy  and  their  leader  murdered. 
As  a  crowning  disgrace,  the  soldiers  of  the 
Roman  garrison,  who  had  been  promised  a  safe 
conduct  from  the  city  if  they  would  give  up  their 
arms,  were  slain  to  the  last  man  while  honorably 
keeping  their  word. 

The  war  had  by  this  time  reached  "every 
city  in  Palestine.  In  Caesarea  alone,  twenty 
thousand  Jews  were  massacred  in  one  hour  and 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  245 

in  all  the  larger  towns,  Jews  were  massacred  by 
heathen  and  heathen  by  Jews. 

Cestius  Gallus  with  a  Roman  army,  tried  in 
vain  to  capture  Jerusalem  and  restore  order. 
His  troops  were  attacked  with  such  violence  at 
Bethhoron  that  their  orderly  retreat  was  turned 
into  a  wild  flight;  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that 
a  remnant  of  his  army  with  its  leader  es- 
caped to  Antioch.  This  was  a  victory  so 
much  greater  than  the  most  sanguine  had 
hoped  for  that  even  those  who  had  been 
most  opposed  to  war  were  drawn  for  a 
moment  into  the  prevailing  current.  By  common 
consent,  Palestine  was  divided  into  twelve  dis- 
tricts, each  commanded  by  a  prominent  priest 
or  Pharisee.  Opposed  to  these  Jewish  leaders 
whose  hands  had  never  held  a  weapon  and  whose 
vocation  had  been  the  pursuit  of  Rabbinical  lore 
or  service  in  the  temple,  was  the  man*  to  whom 
the  Romans  had  entrusted  the  task  of  subjugating 
Palestine,  Vespasian,  the  ablest  and  most  expe- 
rienced general  of  his  day.  The  first  district 
attacked  was  Galilee,  the  defense  of  which  was 
conducted  by  the  historian  Josephus,  then  a 
young  scribe  of  thirty  years.  In  spite  of  some 
brave  fighting  on  the  part  of  the  Jews  and  the 
cunning,  but  puerile  stratagems  of  their  leader, 
which  he  relates  in  his  history  with  the  most 


246          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

complacent  self-satisfaction,  the  result  of  the 
campaign  was  jus>t  what  the  conservative  had 
prophesied.  The  strongholds  of  Galilee  fell 
one  by  one  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans. 
Cities  were  ruthlessly  levelled  to  the  ground  and 
their  inhabitants  slain  or  sold  into  slavery  until 
at  the  end  of  67  A.D.,  all  Galilee  had  become  the 
domain  of  Rome. 

Gishcala  was  the  last  fortress  to  fall,  but  the 
night  before  its  surrender,  a  popular  hero,  John 
of  Gishcala,  the  impersonation  of  that  savage 
and  lawless  spirit  which  for  many  years  had 
found  an  abiding-place  in  Galilee,  escaped  under 
cover  of  darkness  with  a  company  of  Zealot 
followers  to  Jerusalem.  The  atmosphere  which 
he  found  there,  disturbed  though  it  was,  seemed 
to  John  intolerably  peaceful  and  law-abiding  and 
he  set  himself  with  energy  to  effect  a  reformation. 
Harangues  in  which  he  pronounced  the  Romans 
weaklings  and  denounced  the  Jewish  captains  as 
cowards  and  traitors,  so  aroused  the  younger  men 
that  they  would  no  longer  listen  to  the  advice  of 
the  old  and  prudent,  and  again  Jerusalem  was 
rent  with  strife  between  those  who  wished  for 
war  and  those  who  wished  for  peace.  Zealots 
from  all  Judea  hastened  to  Jerusalem  to 
join  the  party  of  John,  and  under  his  leadership 
waged  war  upon  the  respectable  and  well-to-do, 
murdering  respected  citizens  and  pillaging  their 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  247 

houses.  With  overbearing  insolence,  they  ap- 
pointed Phannias,  ar>  obscure  and  ignorant 
countryman,  high'  priest,  and  installed  him  in 
office  with  irreverent  mockery.  Conditions  be- 
came so  intolerable  that  when  the  true  high  priest 
Ananos  besought  the  men  of  Jerusalem  to  arise 
and  overthrow  the  destroyers,  they  rallied  about 
him  with  great  vigor  and  the  Zealots  were 
compelled  to  retreat  to  the  temple.  For  a  few 
days,  only  the  conscientious  scruples  of  Ananos 
who  refused  to  desecrate  the  inner  courts  of  the 
temple  by  shedding  blood,  stood  between  John 
and  destruction.  Then  aid  came  from  Idumea 
whither  the  Zealots  had  sent  for  help.  Twenty 
thousand  wild  marauding  semi-Jews  marched  up- 
on Jerusalem  and.  obtained  entrance  to  the  city 
under  cover  of  a  heavy  storm.  A  reign  of 
horror  as  dreadful  in  its  atrocities:  as  the  most 
shocking  period  of  the  French  Revolution  com- 
menced with  their  arrival.  The  high  priests, 
Ananos  and  JesuS,  were  killed;  citizens  of  or- 
dinary rank  were  openly  murdered  while  those  of 
higher  rank  were  subjected  to  the  most  horrible 
torture  in  the  hope  that  they  might  thus  be  in- 
duced to  join  the  insurgents.  Men  and  women 
dared  not  mourn  for  their  dead  or  even  give  them 
a  decent  burial.  At  length,  Idumeans  and 
Zealots  alike  tired  of  butchery  and  plunder;  and 
as  an  innovation,  instituted  a  mock  court. 


248          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

Seventy  prominent  citizens  were  summoned  to 
judge  the  wealthy  and  respected  Zacharias. 
When  the  judges  braved  the  anger  of  the  ma- 
rauders by  acquitting  the  prisoner,  two  Zealots 
leaped  upon  him  and  slew  him,  crying  uHere  hast 
thou  also  our  verdict." 

Surfeited  with  rapine  and  slaughter,  and  con- 
vinced that  they  had  been  deceived  by  the  Zealots 
whose  request  for  help  had  been  wrapped  in  a 
"cloak  of  patriotism,"  the  Idumeans  finally  took 
their  departure;  but  their  absence  brought  no  re- 
lief to  the  unhappy  city.  The  aristocratic  party 
was  so  weakened  by  losses  that  it  was  no  longer 
able  to  oppose  the  Zealots,  who  now  indulged  in 
shocking  excesses  of  every  sort.  Violence  and 
cruelty  increased;  respectable  citizens  deserted 
in  such  large  numbers  to  the  Romans  that  guards 
were  stationed  by  every  passage  from  the  city  to 
intercept  and  cut  down  fugitives;  and  while  Jeru- 
salem daily  suffered  fresh  horrors,  the  Sicarii  of 
Masada  were  sweeping  through  Palestine  in 
search  of  food,  leaving  behind  them  a  trail  of 
desolation,  cities  in  ashes  and  fields  trampled 
and  laid  waste. 

In  the  meantime,  Vespasian  watched  from 
without,  the  suicidal  course  of  the  city,  awaiting 
with  complacency  the  time  when  self-inflicted 
wounds  should  make  it  his  easy  prey.  The  east, 
the  south  and  the  west  had  fallen  before  him. 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  249 

He  was  preparing  for  the  siege  of  Jerusalem 
when  Nero  died,  and  for  a  year  he  was  obliged  to 
await  the  order  of  the  new  emperor.  In  69  A.  D., 
he  was  himself  proclaimed  emperor  by  his  sol- 
diers and  went  to  Rome  to  claim  his  title,  leaving 
the  war  in  the  hands  of  his  son  Titus. 

While  Vespasian  and  his  troops  rested,  there 
was  no  rest  for  Jerusalem.  In  Simon  bar  Giora, 
a  leader  of  the  Sicarii,  John  had  encountered  a 
rival  as  savage  and  unscrupulous  as  himself. 
Simon's  presence  outside  the  walls  of  the  city 
suggested  to  the  conservative  party  the  "des- 
perate expedient  of  driving  out  the  devil  by  Beel- 
zebub. "  An  embassy  from  Jerusalem  begged 
Simon  to  come  to  the  relief  of  the  oppressed  city; 
and  in  April  69  A.  D.,  he  entered  amidst  the  en- 
thusiastic applause  of  its  citizens  who  welcomed 
him  as  their  savior  and  preserver.  And  now 
Jerusalem  bore  a  double  burden  of  despotism, 
for  neither  tyrant  was  able  to  overcome  the  other, 
and  the  rule  of  Simon  was  as  barbarous  as  that 
of  John.  The  latter  was  driven  to  the  Temple 
Mount  which  he  held  until  even  his  own  men  found 
his  tyranny  unendurable  and  a  part  of  them  mu- 
tinied under  a  third  leader  Eleazar,  who  took 
possession  of  the  temple  proper.  Continual  war- 
fare raged  among  the  three  factions  and  in  their 
rivalry,  they  foolishly  burned  great  stores  of 
grain  which  should  have  preserved  Jerusalem 


250         DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

from  famine  in  time  of  siege.  When  the  week 
of  the  passover  arrived,  John's  soldiers  entered 
the  inner  temple  disguised  as  pilgrims  and  in  the 
hand-to-hand  fight  which  followed,  Eleazar's 
party  was  annihilated  and  Jerusalem  was  again 
at  the  mercy  of  Simon  and  John. 

In  the  spring  of  70  A.  D.,  while  the  temple  was 
resonant  with  the  din  of  civil  strife,  Titus  had 
marched  upon  Jerusalem  and  stood  with  his 
Roman  legions  before  its  walls.  Three  times 
already  he  had  faced  the  violent  Jewish  sorties 
with  which  he  was  to  become  familiar  and  had 
narrowly  escaped  capture  and  defeat.  The  ve- 
hemence of  these  dashing  sallies  banished  all  hope 
of  taking  the  city  by  storm.  The  Romans  must 
break  down  the  walls  with  their  battering-rams 
and  push  their  way  inch  by  inch  toward  the  heart 
of  the  city.  The  difficulty  of  the  undertaking  was 
increased  by  the  location  of  Jerusalem  and  its 
massive  fortifications.  The  city  was  built  upon 
two  hills.  On  the  large  western  hill  lay  the 
Upper  City;  on  the  small  eastern  hill  the  Lower 
City  sometimes  called  the  Acra.  North  of  the 
Acra  was  the  temple  mount,  itself  a  fortress  of 
tremendous  strength,  flanked  on  the  northern  side 
by  the  fortress  Antonia.  On  the  west,  south, 
and  east,  the  walls  which  surrounded  the  city 
stood  on  the  edge  of  steep  precipices;  and  on  the 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  251 

north  where  the  ground  was  low,  three  successive 
walls  prevented  the  entrance  of  the  enemy.  It 
was  before  the  outer  of  these  walls  that  Titus 
stationed  his  army  and  erected  his  battering-rams. 
For  fifteen  days  the  engines  hurled  their  pro- 
jectiles against  the  outer  wall  before  a  breach 
was  effected  through  which  it  was  possible  to 
enter.  Five  more  days  elapsed  before  the  second 
wall  yielded,  and  for  four  more  the  Jews  covered 
the  opening  with  their  bodies.  Then  the 
Romans  forced  an  entrance  and  captured  the 
suburb  which  lay  beyond  it.  Already  the  city's 
store  of  food  was  nearly  spent  and  famine  and 
starvation  had  become  the  companions  of  murder 
and  rapine.  The  common  danger  had  made 
Simon  and  John  allies  and  to  procure  necessary 
food  for  themselves,  their  soldiers  ransacked  the 
houses  of  private  citizens  and  by  awful  torture, 
compelled  them  to  reveal  the  hiding-place  of 
their  last  handful  of  meal  or  their  last  loaf  of 
bread.  Rather  than  endure  the  dangers  and  pri- 
vations of  the  city,  men  and  woman  ventured 
in  large  numbers  outside  its  walls;  but  flight 
brought  them  no  cessation  of  horror,  for  de- 
serters were  captured,  tortured,  and  crucified  by 
the  Romans.  When  Titus  could  not  obtain 
sufficient  wood  for  crosses,  the  hands  of  the  fugi- 
tives were  cut  off  and  they  were  driven  back  into 


252          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

the  city  to  become  the  victims  of  Simon  and  John 
who  were  always  ready  to  hunt  down  friends  of 
Rome. 

Still  there  was  no  thought  of  yielding  when 
Josephus  was  sent  by  Titus  to  offer  the  famine- 
stricken  city  terms  of  surrender,  and  the  Romans 
began  to  erect  ramparts  against  the  third  and 
last  wall  which  barred  them  from  the  Lower 
City.  Seventeen  days  of  hard  labor  had  been 
consumed  in  the  preparation  of  the  four  earth- 
works, two  of  which  were  levelled  against  the 
fortress  Antonia  and  two  against  the  walls  of  the 
Lower  City.  They  were  almost  completed 
when  with  tremendous  clatter,  they  collapsed  and 
burst  into  flames,  a  catastrophe  cunningly  man- 
aged by  Simon  and  John  who  had  undermined 
them  and  arranged  beneath  them  an  unsub- 
stantial foundation  of  crossed  beams  which  they 
daubed  with  pitch  and  bitumen  and  set  on  fire. 
The  event  was  a  critical  one  for  both  Jews  and 
Romans.  To  procure  wood  for  the  earth-works, 
the  country  had  been  stripped  of  timber  for  miles 
around.  It  would  be  difficult  to  obtain  material 
for  rebuilding  them;  but  without  ramparts,  it  was 
impossible  to  level  the  wall.  If  they  should  be 
destroyed  a  second  time,  the  siege  must  fail.  A 
council  of  war  was  held  and  the  Roman  com- 
manders decided  that  their  reconstruction  would 
at  present  be  attended  by  too  great  risks. 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  253 

Famine  must  be  allowed  to  carry  on  the  work  of 
destruction  and  with  incredible  speed  the  Roman 
soldiers  built  a  stone  wall  around  the  entire  city, 
the  vigilance  of  whose  thirteen  watch-towers 
none  might  escape.  For  two  and  one-half 
months  famine  did  its  ghastly  work.  According 
to  Josephus,  115,880  corpses  were  carried  out 
of  one  gate  of  the  city  in  the  period  from  April 
14  to  July  i;  and  many  others  were  cast  down 
from  the  walls  into  ravines  beneath  by  relatives 
of  the  deceased.  Now  John  ventured  for  the 
first  time  to  distribute  the  sacred  wine  and  oil 
among  the  sufferers  and  the  hard  heart  of  Titus 
was  touched.  The  Romans  were  permitted  to 
receive  and  care  for  starving  refugees  before  they 
were  sold  into  slavery.  It  was  unfortunately  dis- 
covered that  one  of  these  poor  creatures  had 
swallowed  his  last  possession,  a  few  pieces  of 
gold,  and  in  one  night  the  greedy  Roman  soldiers 
cut  up  two  thousand  of  his  unhappy  comrades. 
Titus  learned  of  the  outrage  and  forbade  it,  but 
was  unable  to  prevent  its  continuance. 

In  July  the  wearisome  task  of  erecting  ram- 
parts was  again  undertaken  by  the  Roman  sol- 
diers. The  wood  required  for  their  construction 
had  to  be  conveyed  ten  miles  and  twenty-one  days 
of  hard  labor  were  spent  in  their  erection.  When 
they  were  completed,  the  Jews  were  so  weakened 
by  famine  that  they  were  unable  to  offer  vigorous 


254          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

opposition;  and  a  sally  conducted  by  John  was 
more  easily  repulsed  than  former  sorties  of  the 
same  character.  On  the  second  of  July  the  wall 
fell,  but  the  Romans  scaled  it  only  to  discover  that 
the  indefatigable  John  had  erected  another  be- 
hind it.  After  repeated  attempts,  the  Romans 
scaled  this  temporary  wall  and  endeavored  to 
take  the  temple  by  storm,  but  were  so  violently 
repulsed  that  they  could  hold  only  the  Lower 
City  and  the  fortress  Antonia  which  they  soon 
razed  to  the  ground.  Although  wood  must 
be  brought  a  distance  of  twelve  miles,  ram- 
parts were  again  constructed  and  the  batter- 
ing-ram again  did  its  dismal  work;  but  the 
foundations  of  the  temple  stood  firm.  Some 
other  method  of  forcing  an  entrance  must 
be  pursued  and  at  the  command  of  Titus, 
his  soldiers  set  fire  to  the  great  gates.  The 
fire  spread  to  the  cloisters  and  continued  for 
two  days.  The  safety  of  the  temple  was  threat- 
ened before  Titus  ordered  his  men  to  quench  the 
flames,  a  difficult  task  on  account  of  the  irritating 
attacks  to  which  they  were  constantly  exposed. 
Finally  in  a  fit  of  exasperation,  a  soldier  plucked 
a  brand  from  the  burning  corridor  and  tossed  it 
into  the  temple  proper.  Soldier  after  soldier 
followed  his  example  and  Titus,  who  was  unable 
to  restore  order,  had  barely  time  to  rescue  the 
sacred  vessels  and  enter  the  Holy  of  the  Holies. 


JEWS  AND  ROMANS  255 

Then  fire  and  sword  did  their  dreadful  work  and 
the  pride  of  Israel  went  down  in  flames.  Upon 
the  smoking  ashes  of  the  sanctuary  long  sacred  to 
Jehovah,  the  Romans  soldiers  offered  a  sacrifice 
to  Jupiter  Captolinus  and  saluted  their  com- 
mander as  imperator.  In  the  days  which  fol- 
lowed women  and  children,  young  and  old,  priests 
and  people,  became  the  victims  of  the  conquerors ; 
and  the  prominent  buildings  of  the  Lower  City 
were  set  on  fire  at  the  command  of  Titus.  In  the 
meantime  John  and  Simon,  who  had  escaped  to 
the  Upper  City,  were  robbing  the  emaciated  sur- 
vivors of  their  few  remaining  possessions.  They 
refused  to  surrender  and  another  siege  must  be 
undertaken  before  the  Roman  conquest  of  Jeru- 
salem was  complete.  This  last  pathetic  strong- 
hold of  the  Jews,  now  a  city  of  the  dead,  soon  fell ; 
and  the  few  who  had  survived  sword  and  famine 
were  hunted  down.  The  aged  and  infirm  were 
slain  and  the  young  and  strong  sold  into  slavery. 
Twelve  handsome  young  Jews  were  reserved  to 
grace  the  triumph  of  Titus;  and  John  and  Simon, 
driven  by  hunger  from  the  subterranean  passages 
in  which  they  had  taken  refuge,  were  also  sent  to 
Rome  to  march  side  by  side  in  the  triumphal 
parade. 

The  conquest  of  Herodium,  Macharus  and 
Masada,  the  three  strongholds  still  in  the  hands 
of  the  Jews,  was  completed  in  73  A.  D.  and  at  their 


256          DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  ERA 

fall,  the  Jews  as  a  nation,  ceased  to  exist.  The 
promised  land  was  confiscated  by  the  Roman 
Emperor  and  its  inhabitants  were  compelled  to 
deliver  the  tithes  formerly  used  for  the  support 
of  the  temple  to  the  imperial  treasury.  "The 
Captoline  Jupiter  was  to  take  the  place  of  the 
God  of  Israel." 

uRome  has  long  since  passed  away  and  only 
ruins  tell  us  of  its  glory,  but  Israel  is  still,  after 
two  thousand  years,  what  it  was.  It  has  survived 
all  the  vicissitudes  of  history,  all  the  changes  of 
ages,  ever  consistent,  comparable  in  the  life  of 
nations  to  one  of  those  erratic  boulders,  which 
wear  out  the  tooth  of  time  and  mock  at  eternity,  a 
strange  yet  imposing  spectacle,  a  living  witness 
of  long-vanished  milleniums." 

But  in  spite  of  the  persistence  with  which 
Israel,  long  before  her  final  fall,  turned  her  face 
toward  the  past,  she  had  unconsciously  fulfilled 
her  destiny.  Before  her  temple  fell  and  her 
people  became  wanderers  and  outcasts  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth,  the  religion  of  revelation  which 
it  had  been  her  mission  to  protect,  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  saner  and  gentler  hands  of  the 
early  Christians.  Through  Christianity,  her 
child  and  heir,  Judaism  has  touched  countless 
millions;  Greek  and  Roman,  Slav  and  Teuton, 
Goth  and  Celt  find  guidance  and  inspiration  upon 
the  pages  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  law  and  the 
prophets  of  the  ancient  Jew. 


APPENDIX 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES 
CHAPTER  SUMMARIES 
REFERENCES 


APPENDIX 

PARTI.    THE  PERSIAN  PERIOD.    538-335  B.C. 

CYRUS,  538  B.  c. 

The  first  return,  536  B.  C. 
CAMBYSES,  528  B.C. 
DARIUS  I,  521  B.C. 

Haggai,  520  B.  c. 

Zechariah,  520  B.  c. 

Completion  of  the  temple,  515  B.C. 
XERXES  I,  485  B.  c. 
ARTAXERXES,  464  B.  c. 

Malachi,  500-458 (?)  B.C. 

Return  of  Ezra,  458  B.C. 

Return  of  Nehemiah,  444  B.  c. 
•      Birthday  of  Judaism,  Oct.  24,  444  B.  c. 

The  Samaritan  secession,  432 (?)   B.C. 

CHAPTER  I.    EZRA  AND  NEHEMIAH 
OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Characteristics  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah. 
The  Babylonian  Colony. 
The  Colony  at  Jerusalem. 
The  return  of  Ezra,  458  B.  c. 
The  attempted  reforms  of  Ezra,  458-457  B.  C. 
The  return  of  Nehemiah,  444  B.  c. 
259 


260  A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

Work  of  Nehemiah. 

Reading  the  law. 

The  birthday  of  Judaism,  Oct.  24,  444  B.  c. 

The  Samaritan  secession. 

REFERENCES:  Haggai  i,  1-15;  Malachi  i,  n,  7-17; 
m,  7-10;  Nehemiah  i-xm;  Ezra  i-x;  I  Esdras  8  &  9; 
Ecclus.  XLIX,  13;  II  Maccabees  n,  13.  Josephus  Ant. 
XI,  v. 


PART  II.    THE  GREEK  PERIOD.    333-i6o  B.C. 
ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT.    336-323  B.  c. 

Kings   of   Egypt       Jewish  High  Priests  Kings   of  Syria 

PTOLEMY    I,    LAGI,    JADDUA,  350  B.C.  SELEUCUS  I,  NICA- 

323  B.C.  TOR,  301  B.C. 

PTOLEMY  II,  PHILA-     ONIAS  I,  324  B.  c.  ANTIOCHUS    I,    So- 

DELPHUS,  285  B.  C.  TER,    280    B.  C. 

PTOLEMY    III,   Eu-     SIMON  I,  THE  JUST,  ANTIOCHUS  II,  THE- 

ERGETESl,  24.6  B.C.           3OO     B.C.  OS,    26l    B.  C. 

PTOLEMY  IV,   PHI-    ELEAZAR,  242  B.C.  SELEUCUS    II,    246 

LOPATOR,  221   B.C.  B.C. 

PTOLEMY  V,  EPIPH-    MANASSEH,  260  B.  c.  SELEUCUS   III,  227 

ANES,    204    B.C.  B.C. 

PTOLEMY   VI,   PHI-    ONIAS  II,  233  B.C.  ANTIOCHUS        III, 

LOMETOR,  l8l  B.  C.  THE     GREAT,    223 

B.C. 

PTOLEMY  VII,  PHY-    SIMON  II,  219  B.  c.  SELEUCUS  IV,  PHI- 
SCON,    146    B.  C.  LOPATOR,   1878.  C. 
EUERGETES   II.                 ONIAS  III,  195  B.  C.  ANTIOCHUS  IV,  EPI- 

JASON,  175  B.  c.  PHANES,  176  B.  c. 


APPENDIX  261 

CHAPTER  II.    THE  ORIGIN  OF  HELLENISM 
OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Alexander  the   Great    (reigned   from   336  to  313 
B.  c.) 

His  conquest  of  Syria,  333  B.  c. 

His  legendary  meeting  with  the  high  priest. 

His  plan  for  Hellenising  the  East. 

Founding  of  Alexandria,  332  B.  c. 
Socrates,  470-399  B.  c. 

His  life  and  philosophy. 
The  philosophy  of  Epicurus,  337-270  B.  c. 

REFERENCES:     Daniel  n,  39-40;  vm,  5-7,  xxi;  I  Mac- 
cabees, i,  1-5;  Josephus  Ant.  XI,  vm. 


CHAPTER  III.    PALESTINE  TRIBUTARY  TO 
THE  PTOLEMIES.    301-198  B.C. 

OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Prosperity  of  the  Jews. 

Jews  in  Alexandria. 

The  progress  of  Hellenism. 

The  synagogue  and  the  yearly  tribute. 

Power  and  character  of  the  high  priests. 

Simon  II,  219  B.  c. 
Hellenism  in  literature. 

The  Septuagint  commenced,  285-247  B.C. 

Ecclesiasticus,  200  B.  c.(?) 

Ecclesiastes,  200  B.  c.  (  ?) 


262  A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

Wisdom   of   Solomon,   between    150   and    100 

B.C.(?) 

REFERENCES:  Daniel  vin,  8,  21-22 ;  Dan.  xi,  4-20;  Ec- 
clesiasticus  50;  Josephus  Ant.  XII,  i-iv,  III  Macca- 
bees. 

Compare  Ecclesiasticus  xxvm,  12-24  with  James  I,  1-13. 

"  "  xxviii,     1-6   "  Matt,  vi,  12-15. 

xi,       18-19   "  Luke  xn,  16-21. 

"  "  xxi,  10   "  Matt,  vn,       13. 

"         Wisdom         vu,      23-29    "  John  i,        1-12. 


CHAPTER  IV.    THE  PERSECUTION 
OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Palestine  tributary  to  the  Seleucids,  198  B.  c. 

The  accession  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  176  B.C. 

The  attack  upon  the  temple  treasury. 

The  high  priest  Onias  (died  172  B.C.) 

A  Jewish  temple  in  Egypt,  160  B.  c. 

Treachery  of  Jason  and  Menelaus. 

The  persecution,  170-168  B.C. 

The  revolt  under  Mattathias  Maccabeus,  1 68  B.  c. 

Death  of  Mattathias,  167  B.C. 

The  book  of  Daniel  (appeared  about  166  B.C.) 

REFERENCES:    Daniel  vm,   9-14,   23-26;  xi,   21-45; 
Psalms  XLIV,  LXXIV,  LXXIX,  LXXXIII*;  I  Maccabees  I, 

*The  dates  of  individual  psalms  is  a  difficult  and  much  dis- 
cussed question.  Cheyne  assigns  twenty-five  psalms  to  the 
Maccabean  period,  Hitzig  and  Olhausen  all  the  psalms  from 
73-150.  A  larger  number  of  scholars  believe  that  the  num- 
ber of  Maccabean  Psalms  cannot  be  large  and  claim  internal 
evidence  for  Psalms  44,  74  and  79,  sometimes  adding  Psalms 
60,  83  and  1 1 8. 


APPENDIX  263 

10-64;  n,  1-70;  H  Maccabees,  i,  7-8;  m-vii;  Josephus 
Ant.  XII,  v-vi;  IV  Maccabees. 


CHAPTER  V.  JUDAS  MACCABEUS 

i 

OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Character  of  Judas  Maccabeus. 

His  first  victories. 

Samaria,  Bethhoron,  and  Emmaus,  166  B.  c. 

Bethzur,  165  B.  c. 

Rededication  of  the  temple  and  the  feast  of  the  dedica- 
tion, 165  B.C. 

Campaign  against  the  surrounding  small  nations,  164 
B.C. 

Battle  of  Bethzachariah. 

Lysias  and  Demetrius,  B.  c.  163-162. 

Treaty  with  Rome,  1 62  B.  c. 

Second  battle  of  Bethhoron  or  Adasar,  161  B.  C. 

Battle  of  Eleasa  and  death  of  Judas,  161  B.  c. 

Judas  and  Hellenism. 

REFERENCES:     I  Maccabees,  3-9,  1-22;  II  Maccabees, 
8-15;  Josephus  Ant.  XII,  vii-xi. 


264 


A  NEGLECTED  ERA 


PART  III.    THE  ROMAN  PERIOD. 

1 6O  B.  C.-7O  A.  D. 
Roman  Leaders  Rulers   of   the  Jews 

SCIPIO  AFRICANUS  II,  148  B.C.     JONATHAN    MACCABEUS,    160- 

143  B.  c. 

THE   GRACCHI,   133-121   B.C.       SIMON  MACCABEUS,  143-135  B.C. 

JOHN  HYRCANUS,  135-106  B.C. 
ARISTOBULUS  I,  106-105  B.C. 
ALEXANDER  JANNAEUS,  105- 

76  B.C. 

ALEXANDRA,  76-67  B.C. 
RIVALRY    of    HYRCANUS    and 


MARIUS,  108-86  B.C. 
SULLA,  87-78  B.C. 


ARISTOBULUS    II,    67-63    B.C. 


CICERO,  63  B.C. 

POMPEY,  70-48  B.C. 

The   First  Triumvirate,   POM- 

PEY,  CRASSUS  &  CJESAR,  60  B.  c.      (HYRCANUS    II,    High    Priest 

63-40  B.C. 

CJESAR,  IMPERATOR,  46-44.  B-  c.     ANTIPATER,  ruler,  63-43  B.  c. 
The       Second       Triumvirate,     HEROD  and  PHASAEL,  tetrachs, 

OCTAVIUS,  ANTONIUS  &  LEPI-        43-40  B.  c. 

DUS,  43  B.C.  ANTIGONUS,  40-37  B.C. 

OCTAVIUS  AUGUSTUS,  Emperor,     HEROD,  37-4  B.C. 

31   B.C.  to  14  A. D. 

Kings  of  Syria 

ANTIOCHUS   V,   EUPATOR,    164     SELEUCUS  V,  126  B.C. 

B.C.  ANTIOCHUS     IX,     CYZICENUS, 

DEMETRIUS  I,  SOTER,  162  B.C.         "6-95  B.C. 

SELEUCUS       VI,       EPIPHANES 
ALEXANDER  BALAS,  150  B.C.  NICATOR,  96-95,  B.C. 

ANTIOCHUS    X,    EUSEBES,    95- 
DEMETRIUS   II,    NICATOR,   first         83(?)  B.C. 

reign  145-140  B.C.  ANTIOCHUS     XI,      EPIPHANES 

ANTIOCHUS  VI,  DIONYSUS,  145-        PHILADELPHUS,  95  B.  c. 

143  B.C.  PHILIP  I,  95-83  B.C. 

TRYPHON,  usurper,  143  B.C. 

DEMETRIUS  III,  EUKAIROS,  95- 
ANTIOCHUS  VII,   SIDETES,   138        88  B.C. 

B.C.  AINTIOCHUS     XII,     DIONYSUS 

DEMETRIUS   II,    second   reign,         EPIPHANES,   86-80    (?)    B.C. 

129-126  B.C.  ANTIOCHUS    XIII,    ASIATICUS, 

ANTIOCHUS  VIII,  GRYPUS,  126 


J.C. 


69-65    B.C. 

PHILIP,  II 


Syria  invaded  by  TIGRANES,  the  Parthian,  83  B.C. 
Syria  conquered  by  POMPEY,  64  B.  c. 


APPENDIX  265 

CHAPTER  VI.    PALESTINE,  AN  INDEPEND- 
ENT KINGDOM 

OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

The  ascendancy  of  Jonathan  Maccabeus,  160-143  B.  C. 

His  relations  with  Rome  and  with  Syria. 
Simon  Maccabeus,  143-135  B.  c. 

Office  of  high  priest  and  king  vested  in  one  person. 

Destruction  of  the  Syrian  garrison,  142  B.  C. 

Renewal  of  the  treaty  with  Rome. 
John  Hyrcanus,  135-106  B.C. 

His  conquests  of  the  Moabites,  the  Samaritans  and 
the  Edomites. 

The  Jews  and  the  Samaritans. 

The  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees,  109  B.  C. 
Decadence  of  the  Asmonean  Monarchs. 

Aristobulus  I,  106-105  B.C. 

Alexander  Jannaeus,  105-76  B.C. 

Queen  Alexandra,  76-67  B.  c. 

REFERENCES:  I  Maccabees  ix,  23-16;  Josephus  Ant. 
XIII,  i-xvi;  The  Jews  and  the  Samaritans,  Ezra  rv; 
Nehemiah  iv;  Luke  ix,  52-56;  John  iv,  9;  Luke  x, 
30-3  7;  XVH,  15-17. 

Josephus  Ant.  IX,  xiv,  3;  X,  ix;  XI,  vni,  6  &  7; 
XIII,  ix,  i. 

CHAPTER  VII.    THE  RIVAL  CLAIMANTS 
FOR  THE  JEWISH  THRONE 

OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Characteristics  of  Hyrcanus  and  Aristobulus  II. 
Aristobulus  II  seizes  the  kingdom,  67  B.  c. 


266  A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

Influence  of  Antipater. 

Civil  war  between  Hyrcanus  and  Aristobulus  II,  67  to 

63  B.C. 

Intervention  of  Pompey,  63  B.  c. 
Siege  and  capture  of  Jerusalem,  63  B.  c. 
Loss  of  Jewish  independence,  63  B.  c. 
Captivity  of  Aristobulus  II. 

First  Jewish  settlement  in  Rome. 
Escape  and  insurrection  of  Aristobulus  II  and  his  sons, 

57-55  B.C. 
The  proconsul  Gabinius  divides  Judea  into  five  parts,  57 

B.C. 

Antipater  is  made  procurator  of  Judea,  47  B.  c. 

Death  of  Aristobulus  II  and  his  son  Alexander,  49  B.  C. 

REFERENCES:    Josephus  Ant.  XIV,  i-vm. 


CHAPTER  VIII.    HEROD  THE  GREAT 
OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Character  of  Herod  the  Great. 

His  trial  before  the  Sanhedrin,  47  B.  c. 

Death  of  Caesar,  44  B.  c. 

Death  of  Antipater,  43  B.  c. 

HEROD    and    Phaseal    appointed    tetrarchs    of    Judea, 

43  B.  c. 
Herod's  war  with  Antigonus  and  the  Parthians,  42-37 

B.C. 

His  flight  to  Rome. 
Herod  made  King  of  the  Jews  by  the  Roman  Senate,  40 

B.C. 
'His  marriage  to  Mariamne,  38  B.  c. 


APPENDIX  267 

Capture  of  Jerusalem,  37  B.  c. 

First  years  of  his  reign. 

Death   of  Aristobulus   III,   the  young  high   priest,   35 

B.  C. 

Breach  between  Herod  and  Mariamne. 
Execution  of  Mariamne,  29  B.  c. 

"   Mariamne's  sons,  6  B.  C. 
Birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  5(?)  B.C. 
Death  of  Herod,  4  B.  c. 
Policy  of  Herod's  reign. 
His  public  works. 
The  Jewish  temple,  begun  20  B.C. 

REFERENCES:    Matt.  H,  1-18;  Josephus  Ant.  XIV,  ix, 
xi-xvi.    XV-XVII,  vin. 


PART  IV.    DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  AGE 


CHAPTER  IX.    THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 
CANON  AND  THE  TALMUD 

The  reverence  of  the  Jews  for  the  Torah. 

Old  Testament  books  grouped 

The  Pentateuch  recognized  as  sacred,  432  B.  c. 

The  Prophets  recognized  as  sacred,  200  B.  c. 

Hagiographa  recognized  as  sacred,  2nd  century  A.  D. 

The  origin  of  the  oral  tradition. 

The  Halacha. 

The  Haggadah. 

The  Mishna  completed,  about  160  A.  D. 


268  A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

The  Palestinean  Talmud  probably  completed  about  the 

last  quarter  of  the  4th  century. 
The  Babylonian  Talmud  edited  375-499  A.  D.  closed  the 

beginning  of  the  6th  century. 

REFERENCES:    Deut.  iv,  2;  vi,  6-9;  Psalms  xix,  7-8; 
cxix ;  John  v,  39 ;  Romans  m,  1-2. 


CHAPTER    X.    SCHOOL    AND    SYNAGOGUE 

OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Education  a  necessity  on  account  of  legalism. 
Traditions  in  regard  to  education. 
First  schools  for  Hebrew  boys,  ist  and  2nd  century  A.  D. 
Teaching  the  practice  of  the  law. 

The  Synagogue. 
Its  origin. 

Position,  construction,  and  furniture. 
Officials  of  the  synagogue. 
Services  of  the  synagogue. 
A  Jewish  sermon. 

REFERENCES  :  Proverbs  in,  13-18 ;  iv,  1-9 ;  I  Maccabees 
i)  56;  Josephus  Ant.  XX,  xi,  2.  Life  of  Josephus 
Par.  2.  Josephus  Ant.  XII,  iv,  6.  Psalm  LXXIV,  8; 
Matt,  iv,  23;  vi,  2-5;  x,  17;  Luke  iv,  16-20;  vm,  41. 


APPENDIX  269 

CHAPTER  XL    THE  ABSURDITIES  OF 
LEGALISM 

OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Sabbath  observance. 

Bearing  a  burden  upon  the  Sabbath. 

Kinds  of  work  prohibited. 

Rules  for  Friday  evening. 

Concessions. 
Laws  of  cleanness  and  uncleanness. 

Laws  governing  contact  with  Gentiles. 

Laws  governing  dishes  and  utensils. 

Laws  governing  water  used  for  purification. 
Laws  of  prayer. 

Time  of  prayer. 

Salutations  during  prayer. 

Grace  before  eating. 
Outward  symbols  of  duty. 

Zizith,  phylacteries,  and  Mezuah. 
Evasions  of  the  law. 

REFERENCES:  Jer.  vn,  1-7;  Amos,  v,  21-24;  Matt.  6, 
1-7;  ML  n,  23-28;  m,  1-5;  vii,  1-20;  Luke  xvn, 
20-21. 

CHAPTER  XII.    THE  SCRIBES,  THE  PHAR- 
ISEES, THE  SADDUCEES,  AND  THE 

ESSENES 

OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

The  scribes. 

Their  position  in  Jewish  society. 


270  A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

Their  recompense  for  services. 

Scribes  as  legislators,  judges  and  preachers. 

Famous  scribes,  Hillel  and  Shammai,  34  B.C. 
The  Pharisees  (first  mentioned  109  B.C.). 

Development  of  the  sect. 

Their  ideals  and  beliefs. 

Their  fraternity. 
The  Sadducees  (first  mentioned  109  B.C.). 

Their  ideals  and  beliefs. 

The  difference  between  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sad- 
ducees. 
The  Essenes  (existed  from  about  no  B.C.  to  70  A.  D.) 

Probation  of  Essenes. 

Communism  among  the  Essenes. 

Their  daily  routine. 

Their  integrity. 

Their  religious  belief. 

REFERENCES:  II  Sam.  vm,  17.  I  Kings  iv,  3.  II 
Kings  xxii,  8.  Ezra  vii,  6.  Jer.  xxxvi,  6,  10. 
Matt,  v,  20;  xxm,  1-36.  Mark  xn,  38-40.  Luke  v, 
30-35.  Luke  vn,  30-50.  Luke  xvm,  9-14:  John 
in,  1-2 1.  John  vii,  50-52.  Matt,  xxii,  23-32;  Acts 
xxm,  8.  John  xix,  39.  Josephus  Ant.  XIII,  5  &  6. 
Josephus  Ant.  XVIII,  I,  2-6.  Josephus'  Jewish  War 
II,  viii. 


CHAPTER  XIII.    HELLENISM  AND  JUDAISM 
OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Hellenism  in  Palestine,  4  B.  c. 
Greek  words. 


APPENDIX  271 

Greek  architecture. 
Greek  customs. 
Hellenism  excluded  from  Jewish  religion. 

The  Greek  Bible  in  Palestine. 
Judaism  in  Alexandria. 

Accusations  against  it. 

Books  written   to  prove  that  the  Bible  contained 

best  elements  of  Greek  philosophy. 
Aristobulus,  175-1508.0. 
Sibylline  books,  Psalms  of  Solomon,  Book  of  Enoch 

and  Book  of  Jubilees. 
Philo,  2  B.  C.-50  A.  D. 

His  philosophy  and  works. 
The  Aoyos  or  word. 

REFERENCES:    John  i,  1-14;  Colossians  11,  8;  The  Wis- 
dom of  Solomon  1-19;  Josephus  Ant.  XVIII,  viii,  I. 


CHAPTER  XIV.    THE  JEWS  AND  THE 
ROMANS 

OUTLINE  SUMMARY 

Relationship  of  the  Jews  and  the  Romans. 
The  sons  of  Herod  the  Great. 

Herod  Antipas  (exiled  39  A.  D.).     Herod  Archelaus 

(deposed  6  A.  D.).     Herod  Philip   (died  33  A.  D.). 
Judea  under  the  Roman  procurators,  6-66  A.  D. 

The  power  of  the  procurator. 

The  zealots. 

Pontius  Pilate,  procurator,  26-36  A.  D. 

Agrippa  I,  King  of  Judea  41-44  A.  D. 


272  A  NEGLECTED  ERA 

Felix,  52  A.  D.-6o  A.  D.    Festus,  60-62  A.D.    Al- 

binus  62-64  A.  D. 
The  Sicarii. 

Gessius  Floras,  64-66  A.D. 
War  against  Rome,  66  A.D. 
Civil  strife  between  the  war  party  and  the  peace 

party. 

Victory  over  Cestius  Gallus,  66  A.  D. 
Hostilities  commenced,  67  A.  D. 
Subjugation  of  Galilee,  67  A.  D. 
Civil  war  between  John  of  Gishcala  and  Ananos, 

the  high  priest. 

Simon  bar  Giora  leader  of  the  Sicarii. 
Siege  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  70  A.  D. 
The  temple  burned  and  the  city  destroyed,  70  A.  D. 

REFERENCES:  Luke  ix,  7-9;  xm,  31-32;  xxm,  1-26. 
Matt,  xiv,  1-12.  Acts  xn,  1-7,  18-23.  Matt,  xxvii, 
11-24.  John  xviii,  28-40;  xix,  1-15.  Acts  xxm, 
23-35;  xxiv-xxvi.  Josephus  Ant.  XVII,  rx-xni; 
XVIII,  XIX,  XX.  Josephus'  Jewish  War. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Acra,  250 

Albinus :    Roman     procurator, 

239,  240 

Alcimus,  77,  78,  90 
Agrippa,  Herod  I,  238 
Agrippa,  Herod  II,  242 
Alexander,  Balas,  92 
Alexander    the    Great,    25-29, 

35,  36 

Alexander,   Jannaeus,    105,   106 
Alexander:     son     of    Aristob- 
ulus   II,    109,    120,    121,    122 
Alexandra    I,    105,    107 
Alexandra  II,  133,  135,  138 
Alexandreum,    116,    121 
Alexandria:     most     important 
meeting  place  of  the  Greek 
and    Jew,    37-40,    218-229; 
Septuagint      translated      in, 
44-46 
Allegorical  interpretation,  222, 

225 

Amhaarez,  205 
Ananias:  high  priest,  244 
Ananos:  high   priest,  247 
Antigonus,    son    of    Aristobu- 
lus    II:      his     insurrection, 
121 ;  alliance  with  Parthians 
and    capture    of    Jerusalem, 
128,  130-132 
Antioch:  Jews  in,  50,  51 
Antiochus   Epiphanes:   charap- 
ter,  52,  53;  attempt  to  Hel- 
lenize    the     Jews,     55,     56; 
persecution   of  Jews,   58-61 ; 
death,  74 

Antiochus  Eupator,  74 
Antiochus  VI,  92 


Antiochus  Sidetes,  97,  98 

Antiochus;  teacher  of  Cicero,, 
215 

Antiochus  the  Great,  50 

Antipater  I,  no,  in,  115,  X22> 
126,  127 

Antipater:  son  of  Herod  the 
Great,  128,  139 

Antonia:  castle  or  fortress, 
235,  250,  252,  254 

Apocrypha:  character  of,  2,  3; 
admitted  to  the  Septuagint^ 
46 ;  two  books  of,  46,  47,  48 ; 
attitude  of  Jews  toward,  217 

Apollonius,  59,  67 

Aretas:  Arabian  chief,  zii». 
113 

Aristeas,  221 

Aristobulus  I,  104,  105 

Aristobulus  II:  seizes  the 
kingdom,  109;  deposed  and 
conquered  by  Pompey,  113- 
120;  leads  an  insurrection, 
121 ;  is  poisoned,  122 

Aristobulus  III,  133,  134 

Aristobulus:  author,  221,  223 

Architecture,  124,  143-149,  215 

Aristotle,  35,  218,  224 

Arithmetic:  taught  in  Jewish 
schools,  1 68,  169 

Artaxences,  9,  16 

Asmon :  house  of,  63 ;  down- 
hill course  of,  104;  devotion 
of  Jews  to,  128 

Augustus,  136,  143 

Avaran:  surname  of  Eleazar 
Maccabeus,  76 


275 


276 


INDEX 


Babylon:  captivity  at,  n; 
colony  in,  n,  12 

Bacchides:  Nicanor's  succes- 
sor, 90,  91 

Baths:  public,  143 

Battering-rams  74,  117,  131, 
251,  254 

Bearing  a  burden  on  the  Sab- 
bath, 181,  182,  192,  193 

Bethhoron:  first  battle  of,  67 

Bethhoron :  second  battle  of,  80 

Bethhoron:  third  battle  of,  245 

Bethsura:  battle  of,  71 

Bethzacharias :  battle  of,  75,  76 

Bethzur,  73,  75,  77 

Birthday:  of  Judahism,  19 

Brigands  in  Galilee,  125,  131 

Books:  sacred — See  Scrolls 

Caesar,    121,    122 

Caesarea,    144,    234,    244 

Caligula,   238 

Canonical,  153 

Canon:  Old  Testament,  forma- 
tion of,  155-157 

Captivity:  See  Babylon 

Cassius,  126,  127 

Cestius  Gallus,  240,  242,  245 

Chaber,  205 

Chamber  of  Squares,  148 

Chassidim:  the  faithful  or 
pious,  102,  203 

Christ:  birth  of,  149 

Claudius,  238 

Cleopatra,  129,  130,  133,  135, 
136,  143 

Coins,  95,  102 

Colonnades  of  the  temple,  147 

Corban,    194 

Cornelius,  117 

Court  of  the  Gentiles,  147 

Court  of  the  Men,  147,  148 

Court  of  the  Priests,  147,  148 

Court  of  the  Women,  147,  148 

Crassus,  121 

Cypros,  136,  144 


Cyrus,  n 

Daniel :  book  of,  27,  63 ;  quota* 

tions  from,  25,  51 
Damascus,    114 
Daphne:  temple  of,  57 
Demetrius  I,  92 
Demetrius  II,  92,  94 
Demetrius  Eukairos,  106 
Dependencies:   third   class   of 

Roman,  233 

Dispersion,  38,  218,  120 
Divorce,   13,   15,    194 
Dok,  97 
Doris,  128 

Ecclesiastes,  47,  48,  156,  157 

Ecclesiasticus,  42-44,  46,  47 

Edom:  See  Idumea 

Education,    166-169 

Eighteen :  benedictions,  see 
Shemoneh  Esreh 

Elders  of  the  synagogue,  174 

Eleasa:  battle  of,  81,  90 

Eleazar  Maccabeus,  76 

Eleazar:  a  martyr,  62 

Eleazar:  a  Pharisee,   104 

Eleazar:  leader  of  war  party, 
244 

Eleazar:  leader  in  war  against 
Rome,  249 

Eliashib,  20 

Emmaus:  battle  of,  68-70 

Enoch:  book  of,  224 

Ensigns:  See  Images 

Epicurus,   35 

Essenes,  208-212 

Esther:  book  of,   157 

Ezra:  character  of,  9-11; 
return  of,  14;  attempted  re- 
form of,  14-16;  reading  the 
law,  1 8,  19 

Feast  days,  169,  170,  179,  234 
Feast  of  dedication,  72,  73 
Feast  of  Hercules,  56 


INDEX 


277 


Feast  of   tabernacles,   19,   93, 

105,  106,  170 

Felix:  Roman   procurator,  239 
Florus:      Roman     procurator, 

240242 

Galilee,    125,    131,   245,   246 
Games:      public,   56,  215 
Garrison:       Syrian     in     Jeru- 
salem, 59,  73,  77>  93,  94,  95 
Gates  of  temple,  148,  230,  231 
Gazara,    93 
Gemara,   162 

Genesis:  commentary  on,  225 
Gerousia,  41 
Gishcala,   246 
Gorgias,   68,   69 
Grace:  before  eating,  190 
Greek:  culture  See  Hellenism 
Greek:  language,  39,  40,  216. 
Gymnasiums,  56,   143 

Haggadah,  160,  161 

Haggai,  13 

Halacha,  158-161 

Hananiel,  133 

Kazan,  173,  175 

Healing:  on  the  Sabbath,  185 

Heliopolis,   57 

Heliodorus,  54 

Hellenism:  origin  of,  28,  29; 
progress  of,  39,  40,  51; 
checked  by  persecution,  61 ; 
Judas  Maccabeus'  attitude 
toward,  82-84;  history  of 
213-229 

Hellenists,  55,  218 

Herod  Agrippa  I:  See 
Agrippa  I 

Herod  Agrippa  II:  See 
Agrippa  II 

Herod  Antipas,  232 

Herod  Archelaus,  232,  233 

Herod  Philip,  232 

Herod  "The  Great"  charac- 
ter, 123-125;  trial  before 
Sanhedrin,  125,  126;  mar- 


riage,    128,     131,     134-137; 

war    with    Antigonus,    129- 

132;    policy    of    reign,    141- 

X43 »    public   works,    143-149 
Herodium,    129,    144,    145 
Hesiod,  223 
"Hidden":    books    See    Apoc- 

hrypha 
High  priest,  41,  42,   102,  119, 

206 

Hillel,   201,   202 
Historical:      books      of      Old 

Testament,  155 
Holy  of  Holies,  118,  119,  149 
Holy  Place,  148,  149 
Hyrcanus   I:    See   John    Hyr- 

canus 
Hyrcanus    II,    108,    109,    115, 

117,  119,  122,  125,  126,  129, 

131,  i32>  135 

Idumea    (or    Edom),    73,    74, 

99,  "o,  247,  248 
Images,  216,  235,  236,  237,  238 
Immortality:  Jewish  belief  in, 

47,  48,  83,  203,  207,  228 
Interpretation  of  the  law,  158- 

163 

Island  of  Pharos,  45 
Isopoity,  38 
Issus,  26 

Jaddua,  27 

Jason,    55-58 

Jericho,  134,  136,  143 

Jerusalem:  rebuilt,  12,  13; 
plundered,  38,  59;  walls 
razed,  77;  besieged  by 
Aretas,  in,  112;  beseiged 
by  Pompey,  116-119;  cap- 
tured by  the  Parthians,  129; 
recaptured  by  Herod  the 
Great,  131;  besieged,  cap- 
tured and  destroyed  by  the 
Romans,  243-255 

Jesus:  the  son  of  Sirach,  46 

Jesus:  high  priest,  247 


278 


INDEX 


John    Hyrcanus,    97-99,    xoi- 

104 
Jonathan   Maccabeus,   74,   90- 

93 

Joseph:  brother  of  Herod  the 
Great,  130 

Joseph:  uncle  of  Herod  the 
Great,  135,  136 

John  of  Gishcala,  246,  249- 
252,  253,  255 

Jubilees,  Book  of,  224 

Judas  Maccabeus:  his  charac- 
ter, 66,  67;  victories,  67-71, 
73,  80;  restoration  of  the 
temple,  71,  72;  defeat  and 
death,  81,  82;  attitude  to- 
ward Hellenism,  82-84 

Judea,  93,  94,  119,  233 

Judges:  scribes  as,  200 

Law,    the,    153-164;    evasions 

of,    193-195 
Laws    of    cleanness    and    un- 

cleanness,    186-188 
Laws  of  prayer,  188-190 
Laws  of  the  Sabbath,  181-185 
Lawyers,    See   scribes 
Legalism,    4,    5,    71,    96,    180, 

192 

Legislators:     scribes     as,     200 
Literary  honor,  223 
Logos  or  word,  227,  229 
Lower  City,  250,  252 
Lysias,  68,  71,  74,  77 

Maccabean  Psalms,  260 
Maccabees  I,  68,  95 
Maccabees  II,  54,  55.  62 
Maccabees   IV,   221 
Maccabeus,   67 
Macharus,   255 
Magnesia:  battle   of,   53 
Malichus,   127 
Manasseh,    21 

Marriages:    mixed,    14-16,    2X 
Mariamne,   128,   131,   134-137, 
140,  141 


Mark  Antony,   127,   130,  132, 

135 

Martyrs,   62,   63 
Masada,  130,  131,  255 
Massacres,    58,    59,    106,    117, 

244,  245 
Menelaus,  55-59 
Menzuzah,  191 
Migilloth,  or  Rolls,  155 
Minister,   See   Kazan 
Moabites,  73,  99 
Modin,  63,  65,  82,  93 
Moses,  154,  158,  1 60,  1 66,  220, 

222,  224 
Mount  Gerizim,  21,   101 

Nabii  or  prophets,  155 
Neapolitanus,   242 
Neeman,  204 
Nehemiah:  character  of,  9,  10; 

return  of,   16;   building  the 

walls   of   Jerusalem,    16-18; 

organization  of  Jews,  19,  20; 

later  reforms,  20,  21 
Nicolaus,  124 
Nicaso,  21 
Nicanor,  68,  78-80 
Nicanor's  gate,  80,  148,  231 
Nicanor's  day,  80 

Octavius,  130 

Onias,   III,   57 

Onias  IV,   57 

Onias:  a  priest,  in,  112 

Oral    tradition,    158-164,    180- 

190,  207 
Orpheus,  223 

Papyryon:  battle  of,  113 
Parmenio,    27 
Passover,   112,   240 
Pentateuch,     154,     155;     com- 
mentary  on,    222 
Persecution,  the,  58-68 
Phannias,    247 
Phasael,  127,  129,  130 
Phasaelis,  144 


INDEX 


279 


Pharisees,  102-106,  202-205 
Pharsalia:  battle  of,  122 
Philip,  77 

Phylacteries   or   tephillin,    191 
Plato,    35,   220,   222,   224,   227 
Pompey,   112-120,   121-122 
Prayer,  20,  80;   laws  of,  188- 

190 

Prophets   (or  Nabii),  155,  156 
Psalter  of  Solomon,  224 
Ptolmais,  93 

Ptolmais,  the  grammarian,  215 
Ptolemy:  commandant  of  Dok, 

97,  98 

Ptolemy,  Euergetes,  42,  46 
Ptolemy,  Lagus,  37,  42 
Ptolemy,   Philadelphia,  44,  46 

Rabi,  Jehudah,  161,  162 

Rabbis,  See  Scribes 

Reading:  taught  in  Jewish 
schools,  168,  169;  knowl- 
edge of,  1 66 

Receiver  of  alms,  175 

Robe  of  the  high   priest,  27, 

133,  235 

Rome,  50,  53,  59;  treaties 
with,  8x,  89,  96;  conquest  of 
Judea  by,  112-122;  influence 
in  reign  of  Herod  the  Great, 
126,  127,  130-132,  135,  136, 
143,  230,  231;  in  reign  of 
Herod's  sons,  232;  Judea 
governed  by,  233-242;  Ju- 
dea's  war  with,  243-254;  Je- 
rusalem burned  by,  254-256 

Sabbath:  observance,  19,  20, 
60,  61,  64,  117,  131;  laws  of, 
181-185,  192-194.  234 

Sabbatical  year,  19,  28,  61,  76, 
98 

Sacrifice,  14,  27,  56,  60,  61,  63, 
112,  243,  255 

Sadducees,     102-104,     206-208 

Salome,   136 

Salutations,   189,  190 


Samaria,   26,  67,  74,   99,   »3i» 

138,  139,  143 

Samaritans,  21,  26-28,  99-101 
Sanballat  the  Horonite,  17,  2X 
Sanhedrin,  41,  125,  126,  200, 

204,  234 
Scaurus,  113 
Schools:   elementary,   166-169; 

Rabbinical,  12,  158,  169,  199- 

201 

Scribes,   9,   18,    145,   196-202 
Scrolls,  18,  19,  60,  6x,  159,  160, 

173 

Sebaste,  143 
Seleucus,   37 
Seleucus  IV,   53 
Semi-Jew,  see  Idumea 
Septuagint,  44-46,  216,  217 
Sermon:  a  Jewish,  176-178 
Seron,    67,   68 
Sextus  Caesar,  126 
Shammai,    126,    201,    202 
Shechem,  99 

Shema,  175,  176,  179,  191 
Sheraoneh  Esreh,  19,  179 
Sicarii,  239,  249 
Simon  II,  42-44 
Simon    bar    Giora,    249,    250, 

251-255 

Simon  ben  Shetach,  107,  167 
Simon  Maccabeus,  65,  82,  94-97 
Socrates,  29-35,  220,  222 
Song  of  Solomon,  157 
Sophroniscus,  29 
Sophists,   31 
Sosius,  131 
Stoics,  224,  226,  227 
Straton's  Tower,   144 
Sybilline  oracles,  30,  223,  224 
Synagogue,  20,  170-179 

Talmud,  162-164 

Taxes,  50,  51,  53,  94,  «*,  *tf 

Temple,  13,  42-44,  60,  61,  71- 

73,    79,    I45-H9,    230,    235, 

241,  254 


280 


INDEX 


Temple:  Mount,  73,  xiz,  117, 

1 3 if  H6,  250,  254 
Tetrach,  128 
Theodoras:  tutor  of  Tiberias, 

215 

Tiberias,  237 
Tithes,  13,  19,  20,  206 
Titus,  249,  250,  252,  253-255 
Tobiah  the  Ammonite,  17,  20 
Torah,  See  Law 
Treasury:  temple,  41,  54,  121, 

235,  241 

Treaties,  See  Rome 
Tribute,  28,  40,  41,  94,  98,  119 
Triumphs:  Roman,  119,  255 
Trypho,  93 

Upper  City,  250,  255 


Vespasian,  245,  248,  249 

Walls  of  Jerusalem,  i6-x8,  42, 

77,  251-254 
Wisdom   of   Solomon,  46,  48, 

221 

Work:  prohibited  on  Sabbath, 

182 

Worship:  private,  179 
Worship:   emperor,   219,   234, 

238 

Word,  See  Logos 
Writing:    taught    in    Jewish 

schools,  169 

Zacharias,  248 
Zealots,  236,  246-248 
Zechariah,  13 
Zizith,  191 


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